Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 2:5
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
5 13. The voluntary humiliation of Jesus was a necessary step in the exaltation of Humanity
5. For ] The “for” resumes the thread of the argument about the superiority of Jesus over the Angels. He was to be the supreme king, but the necessity of passing through suffering to His Messianic throne lay in His High-Priesthood for the human race. To Him, therefore, and not to Angels, the “future age” is to belong.
unto the angels hath he not put into subjection the world to come ] Lit. “for not to Angels did He subject the inhabited earth to come.” In this “inhabited earth” things in their pre-Christian condition had been subjected to Angels. This is inferred directly from Psalms 8 where the “little” of degree is interpreted as “a little” of time. The authority of Angels over the Mosaic dispensation had been inferred by the Jews from Psa 82:1, where “the congregation of Elohim” was interpreted to mean Angels; and from Deu 32:8-9, where instead of “He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel,” the LXX. had “according to the number of the Angels of God.” From this passage, and Genesis 10, Dan 10:13, &c. they inferred that there were 70 nations of the world, each under its presiding Angel, but that Israel was under the special charge of God, as is expressly stated in Sir 17:17 (comp. Isa 24:21-22, LXX.). The notion is only modified when in Dan 10:13; Dan 10:20, Michael “the first Prince,” and in Tob 12:15 , “the seven Archangels,” are regarded as protectors of Israel. But now the dispensational functions of Angels have ceased, because in “the kingdom of God” they in their turn were subordinated to the man Christ Jesus.
the world to come ] The Olam habba or “future age” of the Hebrews, although the word here used is not aion but oikoumen, properly the inhabited world. In Isa 9:6 the Theocratic king who is a type of the Messiah is called “the Everlasting Father,” which is rendered by the LXX. “father of the future age.” In the “new heavens and new earth,” as in the Messianic kingdom which is “the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,” man, whose nature Christ has taken upon Him, is to be specially exalted. Hence, as Calvin acutely observes, Abraham, Joshua, Daniel are not forbidden to bow to Angels, but under the New Covenant St John is twice forbidden (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9). But, although the Messianic kingdom, and therefore the “future age,” began at the Resurrection, there is yet another “future age” beyond it, which shall only begin when this age is perfected, and Christ’s kingdom is fully come.
whereof we speak ] i.e. which is my present subject.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection – In this verse the apostle returns to the subject which he had been discussing in Heb 1:1-14 – the superiority of the Messiah to the angels. From that subject he had been diverted Heb 2:1-4, by showing them what must be the consequences of defection from Christianity, and the danger of neglecting it. Having shown that, he now proceeds with the discussion, and shows that an honor had been conferred on the Lord Jesus which had never been bestowed on the angels – to wit, the supremacy over this world. This he does by proving from the Old Testament that such a dominion was given to man Heb 2:6-8, and that this dominion was in fact exercised by the Lord Jesus; Heb 2:9. At the same time, he meets an objection which a Jew would be likely to make. It is, that Jesus appeared to be far inferior to the angels. He was a man of a humble condition. He was poor, and despised. He had none of the external honor which was shown to Moses – the founder of the Jewish economy; none of the apparent honor which belonged to angelic beings. This implied objection he removes by showing the reason why he became so. It was proper, since he came to redeem man, that he should be a man, and not take on himself the nature of angels; and for the same reason it was proper that he should be subjected to sufferings, and be made a man of sorrows; Heb 2:10-17. The remark of the apostle in the verse before us is, that God had never put the world in subjection to the angels as he had to the Lord Jesus. They had no jurisdiction over it; they were mere ministering spirits; but the world had been put under the dominion of the Lord Jesus.
The world to come – The word rendered here world – oikoumene – means properly the inhabited, or inhabitable world; see Mat 24:14; Luk 2:1; Luk 4:5; Luk 21:26 (Greek); Act 11:28; Act 17:6, Act 17:31; Act 19:27; Act 24:5; Rom 10:18; Heb 1:6; Rev 3:10; Rev 12:9; Rev 16:14 – in all which places, but one, it is rendered world. It occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The proper meaning is the world or earth considered as inhabitable – and here the jurisdiction refers to the control over man, or the dwellers on the earth. The phrase the world to come, occurs not unfrequently in the New Testament; compare Eph 2:7; 1Co 10:11; Heb 6:5. The same phrase the world to come, owlaam habaa’ – occurs often in the Jewish writings. According to Buxtorf (Lexicon Ch. Talm. Rab.) it means, as some suppose, the world which is to exist after this world is destroyed, and after the resurrection of the dead, when souls shall be again united to their bodies. By others it is supposed to mean the days of the Messiah, when he shall reign on the earth. To me it seems to be clear that the phrase here means, the world under the Messiah – the world, age, or dispensation which was to succeed the Jewish, and which was familiarly known to them as the world to come; and the idea is, that that world, or age, was placed under the jurisdiction of the Christ, and not of the angels. This point the apostle proceeds to make out; compare notes on Isa 2:2.
Whereof we speak – . Of which I am writing; that is, of the Christian religion, or the reign of the Messiah.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Heb 2:5
Put in subjection the world to come
The sovereignty of the future
I.
IF CHRIST IS THE SOVEREIGN OF THE FUTURE, WE SHOULD HOLD STRONG FAITH IN THE UNIVERSAL TRIUMPHS OF HIS SYSTEM.
1. He has plentitude of power for the accomplishment of His promises.
2. Plenty of time.
II. IF CHRIST IS THE SOVEREIGN OF THE FUTURE, WE MAY INFER THAT OUR FUTURE WELL-BEING IS EVER DEPENDENT UPON PRESENT WELL-DOING. Otherwise
1. The good would have no guarantee that present obedience would ensure future well-being.
2. And the evil might hope for approval hereafter.
III. IF CHRIST IS THE SOVEREIGN OF THE FUTURE, HIS LOYAL SUBJECTS SHOULD BE RECONCILED TO THE EVENTS OF THE PRESENT, AND CALMLY AWAIT THOSE OF THE FUTURE.
IV. IF CHRIST IS THE SOVEREIGN OF THE FUTURE, THE OBVIOUS INTEREST OF EVERY HUMAN BEING, IS TO CULTIVATE HIS FRIENDSHIP NOW.
1. Because, without this friendship, His control will run contrary to all the feelings, aspirations, and purposes of the soul.
2. Because without this friendship, His control in the future will be exercised with positive reference to punishment. (Homilist.)
The world to come
The greatest difficulty is to know what is meant by the world to come, which many think refers to the state of glory, and the word which follows the resurrection. Thus Lapide, and some of the ancients. Rivers understands the Church-Christian as opposed to the Church of former times, especially under the law. This is the more probable sense; for the apostle speaks of these last times, wherein God spake unto men by His Son; and it is opposed to the times wherein He spake by His prophets and angels. Yet we must not understand it of the Church exclusively, as though God had not subjected other things, even angels, for the good of the Church. That world and those times whereof the apostle speaks are here meant, but he speaks of the times of the gospel. The proposition is negative. God subjected not the world to come to angels. In former times God had used very much the ministry of angels in ordering the Church, and put much power in their hands to that end. Yet now in this last time He made Christ His Son (who by reason of His suffering was a little lower then the angels) to be the administrator-general of His kingdom, the universal Lord, and subjected the very angels unto Him. The expression seems to be taken from Isa 9:6, for whereas there, amongst other titles given to Christ, one is, everlasting Father; the Septuagint turn it, the Father or Governor of the world to come, which seems to be the genuine sense of the Hebrew words. The sum is, that God did not subject the Church in the times of the gospel, nor the world of those times to angels but to Christ. The words thus understood may inform us
1. That Christ is more excellent than the angels.
2. If the law and Word spoken by angels, when neglected and disobeyed, was so severely punished, much more severely shall they who neglect the gospel spoken by Christ be punished.
3. That if it was the duty of the fathers and those who lived in former times to hearken to the Word spoken by angels, which are but servants, then it is much more the duty of us, who live in these last times, to hearken unto the Word of so great salvation spoken by Christ, made Lord of all. From hence we may understand the scope of the words to be the same with that of the former, and that may be considered either as part of the former reason why we should hearken to Christ and not neglect the gospel; or they may, with the latter words following, contain another distinct reason, and in this manner, that seeing God hath not to the angels subjected the world to come, but to Christ, who, by His suffering and death, was for a little time made lower than the angels, and for that suffering, afterwards made Lord of all, even of angels, then we ought to give the more earnest heed to His doctrine. (G. Lawson.)
The world to come
The phrase to come does not seem here merely to express the antithesis between this world and the new order of things introduced through Christ; with this there is at least included the idea that this new order is still future: compare city to come (Heb 13:14; Heb 6:5). Throughout the Epistle the great antithesis is this world and the world to come. The former, visible, material, transient, to which belongs, as part of it, the first covenant; the other, real, heavenly, and eternal, access into which is through the new covenant. The first is subjected to angels, particularly as revealers of the law; but under their rule seems embraced the whole pre-Christian condition of things, embracing man in his earthly and mortal condition. Salvation is escape from this and possession of the heavenly world. In this world to come the angels have no more rule, all things without exception are put in subjection to man (Heb 2:8). From the Old Testament point of view, the world to come is the world from the coming of the Messiah, for the Old Testament drew no lines in the Messianic salvation, the Messianic world was perfect from the moment of Messiahs coming. But in the view of this Christian writer, though powers from the world to come made themselves felt here (Heb 2:4; Heb 6:5), and though through hope (Heb 6:19) and faith believers might be said to be come to it (Heb 12:22), it was still no more than ready to be revealed. It belonged to a sphere transcending this earth, out of which it would be revealed and descend, and then all that was promised by Gods holy prophets would be fulfilled, when the meek should inherit the earth Psa 37:11; Mat 5:5; Rom 4:13), and the dominion under the whole heaven should be given to the people of the saints of the Most High (Dan 7:27)–for then earth and heaven would be one. This world to come is identical with the all things of the Psalm (verse 8), being all things in their final and eternal condition–whereof we speak means, which is the subject of my writing, rather than, which is the theme of hope and converse among us Christians. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)
Christ the Genius of the future
Strauss, in writing of the Emperor Julians attempt to restore the old paganism, and to put away the new Christianity, says: Every Julian, i.e.. every great and powerful man who would attempt to resuscitate a state of society which has died, will infallibly be vanquished by the Galilean, for the Galilean is nothing less than the genius of the future. To say that the Galilean is nothing less than the genius of the future, is to say of Him what it would be ridiculous to say of any one else. Strauss felt that the spirit of the Galilean was so great add good, so rich, as to give to the future its noblest inspirations. (T. Sherwood.)
The world to come
As a man plants his estate, and plants for far-off years, and gives to each tree the soil and situation it requires–so has the Lord planted this earth, and certainly with reference to a time not yet fulfilled. (Miss S. F. Smiley.)
The hope of a golden age
The hope of a future golden age, when the whole world should be renewed and evil banished, is very plainly expressed in the old German legends of the gods. Baldr, the good, the holy and the wise, the favourite of the gods and of men, is slain through the crafty stratagem of the wicked Loki. The gods and all creatures lament: men and beasts, trees and rocks weep. Evil times afterwards come upon the earth; strife and bloodshed increase; and in the fight between the giants and the gods, Odin and the Ases (the good gods) are subdued, and the world destroyed by fire. But Vidar the victorious will restore the golden age; a new world is to arise, clothed with perpetual spring and plenty; there will no longer be any Loki, and Baldr will return from the dead: while gods and men, recovering from their overthrow, will dwell peacefully together. Kindred traditions are familiar also, in Mexico and the South Sea Islands. In short, everywhere in the heathen world, the prediction and the hope are indigenous, that when evil shall have reached its climax, these iron times of sin and misery will come to an end, and even the gods who have ruled during this age of the world will be overthrown. For this purpose a royal hero, of heavenly descent, will appear to crush the head of the demon and to bring back the primitive age of happiness and innocence. (Prof. C. E. Luthardt.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. The world to come] That olam habba, the world to come, meant the days of the Messiah among the Jews, is most evident, and has been often pointed out in the course of these notes; and that the administration of this kingdom has not been intrusted to angels, who were frequently employed under the law, is also evident, for the government is on the shoulder of Jesus Christ; he alone has the keys of death and hell; he alone shuts, and no man opens; opens, and no man shuts; he alone has the residue of the Spirit; he alone is the Governor of the universe, the Spirit, Soul, Heart, and Head of the Church: all is in his authority, and under subjection to him.
But some think that the world to come means future glory, and suppose the words are spoken in reference to the Angel of God’s presence, Ex 23:20, who introduced the Israelites into the promised land, which land is here put in opposition to the heavenly inheritance. And it is certain that in this sense also we have an entrance into the holiest only by the blood of Jesus. Dr. Macknight contends for this latter meaning, but the former appears more consistent with the Jewish phraseology.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For unto the angels: the Spirit having applied the doctrine of the great gospel Minister, exceeding the prophets of old, and having a more excellent name and office than angels, in respect of his Deity, pursues to show these Hebrews, that he is so likewise in respect of his humanity, the other nature in his person. This he proves negatively in this verse. The rational particle introducing, shows it to be a demonstration of his excelling angels, having a world to come subjected to him, which they have not; for so none of these incorporeal, intellectual, spiritual substances, so often diminished before, have; because those Hebrews were more addicted to esteem of them, and the law ministered by them, than of God the Son incarnate and his gospel.
Hath he not put in subjection; this God the Father, Son, and Spirit, the Creator who formed all things, and had right of disposing all things under their proper Lord, hath not put under their ordering or government; he never decreed, foretold, or promised that it should be under their authority.
The world to come, must be interpreted by that scripture, where it is asserted and proved that it was subjected to the great gospel Minister, and that is in Psa 8:5-8. It is a world that must consist of heaven and earth; compare Heb 2:3,6,7. It was a world not come when Paul wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews, see Heb 2:8. It is a world distinct from this present world, Eph 1:21, in which God-man must eminently reign; a world between this world and a heavenly one which is to come, in respect of us, Luk 18:30; 1Ti 4:8. A world to come, which the angels have nothing to do with, as they have with this, which is greatly under their administration; such as consists of a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, 2Pe 3:13; for Peter asserts, that Paul, according to the revelation given him of it, had written to these Hebrews, and eminently in this text. And unto this do the prophets give witness, Isa 65:17,18; 66:22; and of his day of rest and sabbath in it, as Heb 4:7,9,10; so Isa 66:23. And for their restitution in this world to come do the creatures groan, Rom 8:19-23, that they may be therein under the happy administration of the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven. And of this the 8th Psalm {Psa 8:1-9} doth assure us; for it is not, as some have imagined, a representation of the state of the first Adam, but of God-man, the Second Adam, and his world; for Christ applieth it to himself, and testifieth it was written of him, and it is not compatible in itself to any other, Mat 21:16. This world to come is a heavenly world, begun by Christ to be created when he commenced to preach the gospel covenant, which angels were not to meddle with, as they did the law, but was only to be ministered by men, Psa 8:2; through whose ministry of the word by the Spirit, is ingrafted into the sinful nature of the elect a new creature, whereby they are delivered from this present evil world, Gal 1:4, and fitted for being inhabitants of this new one, 2Co 4:6; 5:17; compare Eph 4:22-24; which hath been preparing by Christs casting down heathenism and Judaism by the gospel, Luk 10:18; Heb 12:26, and bringing them into a new world of ordinances and church privileges, fitted for them, and called by the Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, it surpassing the Sinai church state as much as heaven doth earth. And he is now proceeding to cast down papism, or Roman Christian paganism, and Mahometism, Rev 19:19-21, and to subdue the generality of men, both Jews and Gentiles, to himself, Zec 14:9; Rom 11:25,26; when this Christian heavenly frame shall be advanced to a higher degree by the descent of the new Jerusalem from God out of heaven, Rev 21:1,2; 22:1-5; in the which the kingdom of Christ shall be most peaceable, glorious, and prosperous. And to the rendering of it eminently so, Scripture seems to intimate, that the bodies of the martyrs of Jesus shall be raised, and their souls united to them, and so be made conformable to Christs glorified person, Phi 3:21; compare Rev 20:4-6. These will their Lord send down into this new world, and to have the same state in it, and to perform the same offices to the saints, as the angels had and did in the world past, Mar 12:25; there to be kings, and reign as the angelical thrones and principalities did before, Rev 5:10; 20:4. As priests, help on the saints duties, and instruct them in the matters of the kingdom of God, and so answer in conformity to their Head, as he was forty days after his resurrection; during whose reign in this new world the devil shall be chained up, so as they shall not be infested, nor the nations deceived, as formerly they were by him, Rev 20:1-3, so as there shall be no need of good angels to oppose or restrain him. At the close of which thousand years the devil will be loosed for a little while, as Heb 2:3,7,8, and infest the world, when the great Lord and King of it shall in the greatest solemnity descend into the air with all his hosts of angels; and by the trumpet of God sounded by the arch-angel, the dead in Christ shall first be raised, and the living changed in the twinkling of an eye; and being openly owned and acknowledged by the Supreme Judge, shall be assessors with him; when the judgment shall proceed by the angels bringing devils and all impenitent mankind to the bar of Christ, where the vast accounts of them shall be cast up and audited, and on the charge against them they shall be found speechless and convict, so as the great Judge shall solemnly sentence them, and it be assented to and applauded by all the saints, Rev 20:2,11,12,15, compare 1Co 6:2,3, and be as gloriously executed by the ministering angels, Mat 13:41-43. And so this great King and Lord, having thus shut up the scene of this world, shall return in triumph into the heaven of heavens, and there in the height of his glory deliver up his kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all, 1Co 15:22-28.
Whereof we speak; we describe it further in the following testimony, and in this Epistle, as to some part of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Forconfirming theassertion, Heb 2:2; Heb 2:3,that the new covenant was spoken by One higher than the mediators ofthe old covenant, namely, angels. Translate in the Greekorder, to bring out the proper emphasis, “Not the angels hathHe,” c.
the world to comeimplying,He has subjected to angels the existing world, the OldTestament dispensation (then still partly existing as to itsframework), Heb 2:2, thepolitical kingdom of the earth (Dan 4:13Dan 10:13; Dan 10:20;Dan 10:21; Dan 12:1),and the natural elements (Rev 9:11;Rev 16:4). and even individuals(Mt 18:10). “The world tocome” is the new dispensation brought in by Christ, beginning ingrace here, to be completed in glory hereafter. It is called “tocome,” or “about to be,” as at the time of its beingsubjected to Christ by the divine decree, it was as yet a thing ofthe future, and is still so to us, in respect to its fullconsummation. In respect to the subjecting of all things toChrist in fulfilment of Ps8:1-9, the realization is still “to come.” Regardedfrom the Old Testament standpoint, which looks prophetically forwardto the New Testament (and the Jewish priesthood and Old Testamentritual were in force then when Paul wrote, and continued till theirforcible abrogation by the destruction of Jerusalem), it is “theworld to come”; Paul, as addressing Jews, appropriately calls itso, according to their conventional way of viewing it. We, like them,still pray, “Thy kingdom come”; for its manifestationin glory is yet future. “This world” is used in contrast toexpress the present fallen condition of the world (Eph2:2). Believers belong not to this present world course, but byfaith rise in spirit to “the world to come,” making it apresent, though internal. reality. Still, in the present world,natural and social, angels are mediately rulers under God in somesense: not so in the coming world: man in it, and the Son of man,man’s Head, are to be supreme. Hence greater reverence was paid toangels by men in the Old Testament than is permitted in the NewTestament. For man’s nature is exalted in Christ now, so that angelsare our “fellow servants” (Re22:9). In their ministrations they stand on a different footingfrom that on which they stood towards us in the Old Testament. We are”brethren” of Christ in a nearness not enjoyed even byangels (Heb 2:10-12;Heb 2:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For unto the angels,…. Though angels were concerned in the giving of the law, and were frequently employed under the former dispensation, in messages to men, and in making revelations of God’s mind and will to them, yet to them
hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak: by which is meant, not the future state of eternal glory and happiness in heaven, as opposed to this world, and the present state of things; though there may be much truth in this sense, as that the present world is in subjection to angels, and the world to come is not; the present world is much in subjection, though it is not put into subjection, to evil angels, who usurp a power over it, hence Satan is called the god and prince of this world; and it is in some sense in subjection to good angels, as they are used by God in the execution of his providential care and government, in influencing and assisting at the councils of princes, in inflicting God’s judgments on kingdoms and nations, and in the special care of his own people: but the world to come, as opposed to this, is not at all subject to them; they are employed in carrying the souls of departed saints thither, and shall be with them there, and join with them in their service; but they will not be as kings, nor even as children, but as servants; much less is heaven at their dispose to give to whomsoever they please; it is only in this sense in subjection to Christ, the Prince of life, who has power to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given to him: but it is not of this world the apostle is speaking; he is speaking of something now, which bears this name, and in proof of it cites a passage out of Ps 8:1 where mention is made of sheep, and other things, which cannot refer to the world of glory: rather it designs the new heavens and new earth at the resurrection, and day of judgment, for these will not be put in subjection to angels; though of these the apostle is not speaking in the context: it seems therefore to intend the Gospel, and the Gospel dispensation and church state, in opposition to the Jewish state, and legal dispensation, which was called a world, and had in it a worldly sanctuary, and worldly ordinances, which is now at an end; and at the end of which Christ came, and then another world took place, here called “the world to come”, as the times of the Messiah are frequently called by the Jews , “the world to come”, the Gospel dispensation, the apostle was treating of in the preceding verses, in distinction from the law, the word spoken by angels; for the Gospel was not spoken by them, but by the Lord: the Gospel state is very properly the world to come, with respect to the Old Testament saints, who were looking for it, and in which old things are past away, and all things are become new; angels desire to look into the mysteries of it, and learn from the church the manifold wisdom of God; but not they, but men, are the dispensers of the doctrines of it; and Christ, he is the Head, King, Governor, and Father of this new world: so instead of “everlasting Father”, the Septuagint render the clause , in Isa 9:6 “the Father of the age”, or “world to come”; and hence mention is made in the Jewish writings of , “the world to come of the Messiah” d.
d Targum in 1 Kings iv. 33.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Design of Christ’s Sufferings. | A. D. 62. |
5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 8 Thou hast 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. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
The apostle, having made this serious application of the doctrine of the personal excellency of Christ above the angels, now returns to that pleasant subject again, and pursues it further (v. 5): For to the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
I. Here the apostle lays down a negative proposition, including a positive one–That the state of the gospel-church, which is here called the world to come, is not subjected to the angels, but under the special care and direction of the Redeemer himself. Neither the state in which the church is at present, nor that more completely restored state at which it shall arrive when the prince of this world is cast out and the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdom of Christ, is left to the government of the angels; but Jesus Christ will take to him his great power, and will reign. He does not make that use of the ministration of angels to give the gospel as he did to give the law, which was the state of the old or antiquated world. This new world is committed to Christ, and put in absolute subjection to him only, in all spiritual and eternal concerns. Christ has the administration of the gospel church, which at once bespeaks Christ’s honour and the church’s happiness and safety. It is certain that neither the first creation of the gospel church, nor its after-edification or administration, nor its final judgment and perfection, is committed to the angels, but to Christ. God would not put so great a trust in his holy ones; his angels were too weak for such a charge.
II. We have a scripture–account of that blessed Jesus to whom the gospel world is put into subjection. It is taken from Ps. viii. 4-6, But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man, that thou visitest him? c. There words are to be considered both as applicable to mankind in general, and as applied here to the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. As applicable to mankind in general, in which sense we have an affectionate thankful expostulation with the great God concerning his wonderful condescension and kindness to the sons of men. (1.) In remembering them, or being mindful of them, when yet they had no being but in the counsels of divine love. The favours of God to men all spring up out of his eternal thoughts and purposes of mercy for them as all our dutiful regards to God spring forth from our remembrance of him. God is always mindful of us, let us never be forgetful of him. (2.) In visiting them. God’s purpose of favours for men is productive of gracious visits to them; he comes to see us, how it is with us, what we ail, what we want, what dangers we are exposed to, what difficulties we have to encounter; and by his visitation our spirit is preserved. Let us so remember God as daily to approach him in a way of duty. (3.) In making man the head of all the creatures in this lower world, the top-stone of this building, the chief of the ways of God on earth, and only a little lower than the angels in place, and respect to the boy, while here, and to be made like the angels, and equal to the angels, at the resurrection of the just, Luke xx. 36. (4.) In crowning him with glory and honour, the honour of having noble powers and faculties of soul, excellent organs and parts of body, whereby he is allied to both worlds, capable of serving the interests of both worlds, and of enjoying the happiness of both. (5.) In giving him right to and dominion over the inferior creatures, which did continue so long as he continued in his allegiance and duty to God.
2. As applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole that is here said can be applied only to him, Heb 2:8; Heb 2:9. And here you may observe, (1.) What is the moving cause of all the kindness God shows to men in giving Christ for them and to them; and that is the grace of God. For what is man? (2.) What are the fruits of this free grace of God with respect to the gift of Christ for us and to us, as related in this scripture-testimony. [1.] That God was mindful of Christ for us in the covenant of redemption. [2.] That God visited Christ on our account; and it was concluded between them that in the fulness of time Christ should come into the world, as the great archetypal sacrifice. [3.] That God had made him a little lower than the angels, in his being made man, that he might suffer and humble himself to death. [4.] That God crowned the human nature of Christ with glory and honour, in his being perfectly holy, and having the Spirit without measure, and by an ineffable union with the divine nature in the second person of the Trinity, the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily; that by his sufferings he might make satisfaction, tasting death for every man, sensibly feeling and undergoing the bitter agonies of that shameful, painful, and cursed death of the cross, hereby putting all mankind into a new state of trial. [5.] That, as a reward of his humiliation in suffering death, he was crowned with glory and honour, advanced to the highest dignity in heaven, and having absolute dominion over all things, thus accomplishing that ancient scripture in Christ, which never was so accomplished or fulfilled in any mere man that ever was upon earth.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
For not unto angels ( ). The author now proceeds to show (2:5-18) that the very humanity of Jesus, the Son of Man, likewise proves his superiority to angels.
The world to come ( ). The new order, the salvation just described. See a like use of (as participle) with (1:14), (6:4f.), (Heb 9:11; Heb 10:1), (13:14).
Whereof we speak ( ). The author is discussing this new order introduced by Christ which makes obsolete the old dispensation of rites and symbols. God did not put this new order in charge of angels.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The writer’s object is to show that the salvation, the new order of things inaugurated by Christ, is in pursuance of the original purpose of creation, to wit, that universal dominion was to pertain to man, and not to angels. The great salvation means lordship of the world to be. This purpose is carried out in Christ, who, in becoming man, became temporarily subject to the earthly dispensation of which angels were the administrators. This was in order that he might acquire universal lordship as man. Being now exalted above angels, he does away with the angelic administration, and, in the world to come, will carry humanity with him to the position of universal lordship. This thought is developed by means of Psalm 8. Having set Christ above the angels, the writer must reconcile that claim with the historical fact of Christ ‘s humiliation in his incarnate state. The Psalm presents a paradox in the antithesis of lower than the angels and all things under his feet. From the Psalm is drawn the statement of a temporary subordination of Christ to angels, followed by his permanent exaltation over them.
Hath – put in subjection [] . The word suggests an economy; not merely subjecting the angels, but arranging or marshaling them under a new order. See 1Co 14:27, 28; Eph 1:22; Phi 3:21.
The world to come [ ] . See on ch. Heb 1:2. For hJ oijkoumenh the inhabited (land or country) see on Luk 2:1. The world to come means the new order of things inaugurated by the sacrifice of Christ.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
THE EARTH YET TO BE PUT UNDER CHRIST
1) “For unto the angels,” (ou gar angelois) “For it is not to angels,” such as once had jurisdiction over the world, Eze 28:11-19.
2) “Hath he not put in subjection the world to come,” (hupetaksen ten oikoumenen ten mellousan) “He subjected the coming (approaching) inhabited earth,” the earth during the millennium; He did once make the world the habitation of angels, but they deserted it, hence it shall never again be under their subjection, but under the Lord Jesus Christ, Jud 1:6; Heb 2:9-14; 1Co 15:23-28.
3) “Wherefore we speak,” (peri hetis laloumen) “About, (concerning) which we speak” or say these things, the subject about which he now proceeds to speak further, Heb 2:6-15; Rev 11:15. The entire new order of the universe and its restitution, regeneration, and the coming jurisdiction of Christ over it is now introduced as follows:
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
5. For unto the angels, etc. He again proves by another argument that Christ ought to be obeyed; for the Father has conferred on him the sovereignty of the whole world, while the angels are wholly destitute of such an honor. It hence follows that none of the angels should stand in the way of his preeminence who alone possesses supremacy.
But first, the Psalm which he quotes must be examined, for it seems to be unfitly applied to Christ. David there mentions the benefits which God bestows on mankind; for after having contemplated God’s power as manifested in heaven and the stars, he comes to man, among whom the wonderful goodness of God appears in a peculiar manner. He does not, then, speak of any particular person, but of all mankind. To this I answer, that all this affords no reason why the words should not be applied to the person of Christ. I indeed allow that man was at first put in possession of the world, that he might rule over all the works of God; but by his own defection he deserved the loss of his dominion, for it was a just punishment for ingratitude as to one thus favored, that the Lord, whom he refused to acknowledge and faithfully to worship, should have deprived him of a right previously granted to him. As soon, then, as Adam alienated himself from God through sin, he was justly deprived of the good things which he had received; not that he was denied the use of them, but that he would have had no right to them after he had forsaken God. And in the very use of them God intended that there should be some tokens of this loss of right, such as these, — the wild beasts ferociously attack us, those who ought to be awed by our presence are dreaded by us, some never obey us, others can hardly be trained to submit, and they do us harm in various ways; the earth answers not our expectations in cultivating it; the sky, the air, the sea, and other things are often adverse to us. But were all creatures to continue in subjection, yet whatever the sons of Adam possessed would be deemed a robbery; for what can they call their own when they themselves are not God’s?
This foundation being laid, it is evident that God’s bounty belongs not to us until the right lost in Adam be restored by Christ. For this reason Paul teaches us that food is sanctified to us by faith, (1Ti 4:5😉 and in another place he declares that to the unbelieving nothing is clean, for they have a polluted conscience. ( Titus 1:16.)
We found at the beginning of this epistle that Christ has been appointed by the Father the heir of all things. Doubtless, as he ascribes the whole inheritance to one, he excludes all others as aliens, and justly too, for we are all become exiles from God’s kingdom. What food, then, God has destined for his own family, we leave no right to take. But Christ, by whom we are admitted into this family, at the same time admits us into a participation of this right, so that we may enjoy the whole world, together with the favor of God. Hence Paul teaches us that Abraham was by faith made an heir of the world, that is, because he was united to the body of Christ. (Rom 4:13) If men, then, are precluded from all God’s bounty until they receive a right to it through Christ, it follows that the dominion mentioned in the Psalm was lost to us in Adam, and that on this account it must again be restored as a donation. Now, the restoration begins with Christ as the head. There is, then, no doubt but that we are to look to him whenever the dominion of man over all creatures is spoken of.
To this the reference is made when the Apostle mentions the world to come, or the future world, for he understands by it the renovated world. To make the thing clearer, let us suppose two worlds, — the first the old, corrupted by Adam’s sin; the other, later in time, as renewed by Christ. The state of the first creation has become wholly decayed, and with man has fallen as far as man himself is concerned. Until, then, a new restitution be made by Christ, this Psalm will not be fulfilled. It hence now appears that here the world to come is not that which we hope for after the resurrection, but that which began at the beginning of Christ’s kingdom; but it will no doubt have its full accomplishment in our final redemption.
But why he suppressed the name of David does not appear to me. Doubtless he says one, or some one, not in contempt, but for honor’s sake, designating him as one of the prophets or a renowned writer.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Heb. 2:5. World to come.The new dispensation. Rabbinical teaching was divided under two heads:
(1) hlm hazzeh (the present world), and
(2) hlm habb (the world to come). The period referred to in this verse is that which succeeds the exaltation of Christ. But the word used by the writer strictly means the inhabited earth.
Heb. 2:6. The writer brings this quotation from the 8th Psalm to show that man is recognised as inferior to angels. This he admits must apply to Jesus, the Head of the new dispensation. He has therefore to meet the Jewish objection, that Judaism, ministered by angels, must be a higher dispensation than Christianity, which was ministered by a man. Notice that this writer does not affirm the Davidic authorship of the psalm. The quotation is taken from the LXX. Version. The writers thought may be thus given: According to Scripture the world is subjected to man, not to angels. We ought therefore to cherish high notions of mans dignity. Man has not, however, yet gained his full sovereignty. There is hope for him now; for we do see the Man Christ Jesus, though humiliated for a purpose, crowned with glory and honour, and constituted the Head of the race. In Him and through Him man will reach His full dignity. There is One in whom the Divine purpose is fulfilled in all its parts.
Heb. 2:9. To understand this verse we must keep in view the Jewish objection which the writer is combating. It may be stated thus: The Christ whom you are so greatly exalting was only a man, and suffered an ignominious death. He replies: There was a necessity for that humiliation to share our humanity, and a necessity for that experience of death. And on the ground of consenting to that humiliation, and suffering that death, He is crowned with glory and honour. Compare St. Pauls glorying in Christ and Him crucified. Taste death.Passing through a complete human experience. For every man.In order to gain redemptive power on every man.
Heb. 2:10. Became Him.God, rhetorically described in the next clause. Many sons.An assertion of the relation of man to God which Christ the Son fully represents. Captain.Better, Bringer-on. Christ is the living Leader of souls. Author is a suitable term. Perfect.In the sense of perfectly competent. But two thoughts seem to be included:
(1) perfectly fitted for His work of bringing on;
(2) perfect, as crowned with glory and honour, for reward. It became God to give the reward. Sufferings.The characteristic lot of humanity.
Heb. 2:11. Sanctifieth.The LXX. and the New Testament use of the word is the selecting out, and adopting for, Gods service. It suggests the moral side of the Redeemers work. All of one.Of one and the same human nature. If Christ was to exert moral power on us, manifestly He must be a moral being in our sphere, and familiar with our experience. Brethren.Real brother-men. The full value of our Lords humanity in relation to His complete redemptive work is only now coming into the full view of theologians.
Heb. 2:14. Partakers of flesh and blood.This opposes the errors of the Docet. The devil.A deadly power of leading men into sin is ascribed to the devil (see Joh. 16:11; Eph. 2:2; Eph. 6:12; 1Co. 2:15; 2Co. 4:14). Stuart explains, To render null the deadly power of Satan is to prevent the effects of it, as bringing men to incur the sentence of spiritual death.
Heb. 2:15. Fear of death.Not physical dying, but the sin-sense, which darkens the future.
Heb. 2:16.R.V. For verily not of angels doth He take hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham. Does not redemptively interest Himself in angels.
Heb. 2:17. Behoved Him.It was as becoming as it certainly was necessary. High priest.This allusion rhetorically introduces the writers next comparison. The great point impressed in this chapter is, that the Son accomplishes His redemptive work largely through the power of sympathy; to secure that sympathy He must have fellow-experience with man in His sufferings and death.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Heb. 2:5-18
The Representative Manhood of the Divine Son.It is necessary to deal with this passage as a whole, because only one subject is really treated in it. The writer has referred to the angels, and has shown the superiority of Jesus to them in being the Divine Son. But he had spoken of the angels as ministering spirits. Not men; not in the earthly range; and so not effective agents in accomplishing human redemption. If he had dwelt upon the superiority of Christ to angels, he must also recognise His temporary inferiority to angels. If he dwells first on the primary truth of our Lords Deity, he must also present the equally essential truth of His humanity. He was made a little lower than the angels by becoming a man; and a man He must become if He would accomplish the redemption of man. The temporary humiliation was the voluntary and predestined means whereby alone He could accomplish His redemptive work. But the writer approaches his theme from a fresh and somewhat unusual side; we might almost say that he comes round to it in an indirect way. This is his point, The voluntary humiliation of Jesus was a necessary step in the exaltation of humanity.
I. Gods promise to man is vindicated in Christ.In having the limitations of a human body, with its five senses, man is made a little lower than the angels; but in the earth-sphere where he, in the body, is placed he is supreme, he is lord, everything is subject to him. So God constituted his relations. Amid all earthly things man stands first, crowned with glory and honour. Set over the works of Gods hands, the entire material universe. And having all things put in subjection under his feet.
1. Rule in the earthly and human spheres is in no sense given to angels. Unto the angels did He not subject the inhabited earth [margin, R.V.] whereof we speak.
2. But, as a matter of fact, this complete rule, which God designed for him, has never yet been realised by ordinary man. Now we see not yet all things put under him. That fact is explained by mans wilfully breaking loose from the laws and conditions which God had arranged, and so bringing sin and death into the world, things which are entirely beyond mans control, by which he has always been mastered. All things then are not subject to the ordinary man. There is very much that is subject to him. In one direction he is limited. Death, and the sin which makes it a necessity, man cannot control.
3. This complete rule over absolutely all things in the earth-sphere is realised in one Man, the representative Man, the Man Christ Jesus. The Son was made a little lower than the angels, made a man, in order that He might deal with the one thingdeathwhich man had no power to conquer. As a man only was it possible for Him to taste death, and in the very experience of it conquer it. Through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death. It was as if an alien power held death; and from him man could never wrest it; so all his life, master whatsoever he might, man was afraid of death, and subject to its bondage. Christ the man won for man the mastery of the one thing that completed mans mastery of the earth, and now, in Christ, Gods promise to man is realisedall things are in subjection unto Him.
II. See how much is involved in the vindication.Death is only a climax and result. It involves so much. And He who gains the mastery of death must gain with it the mastery of all that it involves.
1. It is the climax of sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Then it must be evident that Christ has gained the power to deal with and master human sin.
2. But the writer has another thing in mind. Suffering is in the world, as Gods disciplinary agency for the correcting of sin. And He who conquers death for man, and masters sin for man, must also have the power to deal with suffering. And just as He yielded to death and took all its bitterness away, so He yielded to suffering and took all its bitterness away nay, even gained His power to sanctify suffering, and take away sin by sufferingwas made a perfect Bringer on of souls to glory by suffering. What have we then in Christ when we can fully embrace the double truth of His Deity and His humanity?
1. His sympathyborn of actual experiencein our times of suffering.
2. His representative triumph over death, which secures us relief from the fear of death.
3. The destruction of death itself in its relation to sin; and His present living masteryas our Headof the sins that bring on death, and the sufferings that were necessary to exhibit the evil of sin, and to discipline man in his efforts to master sin. It behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren, that He might deliver them from their sin and death bondage, and come into their lives as a sympathetic and efficient spiritual helper.
(In Suggestive Notes see passage from Moses Stuart.)
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Heb. 2:5. The Infinite Superiority of Jesus to the Angels is not diminished but rather enhanced by the temporary humiliation which was the voluntary and predestined means whereby alone He could accomplish His redemptive work.
The Temptableness of Christs Manhood.Temptation of its own nature involves suffering, and it is too generally overlooked that though our Lords severest temptations came in two great and solemn crisesin the wilderness and at Gethsemaneyet Scripture leads us to the view that He was always liable to temptation, though without sin, because the temptation was always repudiated with the whole force of His will throughout the whole course of His life of obedience. It is indeed essential to any and every moral being that he shall be temptable, and it shall be possible to yield to temptation and fall. This truth is illustrated in the legend of the fall of the angels. Too often angels are thought of as untemptable. What is promised to us is not a future removal of the liabilities of the moral nature, which we shall always have, but a Divine life in our will, which will give us the absolute security that Christ enjoyed.
The Objection to Salvation by a Fellow-man.As the Jews, one and all, conceded that the dispensation of the Messiah would be of a higher order than that of Moses, proof that Jesus was the sole mediator or head of the new dispensation, and that angels were not employed as mediators or internuntii in it, would satisfy them that Jesus was superior to angels. But the unbelieving Jew would be likely to urge the seeming absurdity of renouncing subjection to a dispensation of which angels were the mediators, and of acknowledging a subjection to one of which the professed head and mediator appeared in our nature. It was repulsive to the feelings of the unbelieving Jews, that one to all appearance like a man, and made up of flesh and blood in the same manner as themselves, should advance a claim to the exalted honour of a superior and Divine nature. The writer concedes the fact entirely, that Jesus had a nature truly and properly human. But instead of granting that this proves the new dispensation to be inferior to that of Moses, he proceeds to adduce evidence from the Old Testament Scriptures, to show that man, or the human nature in the person of the Messiah, should be made Lord of the universe. Consequently, in this nature, Jesus the Messiah is superior to angels. Nay, more, it was becoming that God should exalt Jesus, in consequence of His obedience unto death. To suffer this death, He must needs take on. Him a nature like ours. And as His object was the salvation of men (and not of angelic beings), so He participated in the nature of men, in order that by experience He might know their sufferings, temptations, and trials, and thus be prepared, in a peculiar manner, to be compassionate and ready to succour. The sum of the whole is: The possession of a human nature by Jesus is far from being a reason why the ancient dispensation (of which angels were the internuntii) is preferable to the new one; for
1. This very nature is exalted far above the angels.
2. Without participating in this nature, Jesus could not have made expiation for sin by His death.
3. The possession of such a nature did contribute in a peculiar and endearing manner to constitute Him such a Saviour as men could approach with the greatest boldness and confidence, in all their wants and in all their woes (Moses Stuart).
Heb. 2:8. The Limited Supremacy of Man.Scripture is no story of the material universe. Man is the central figure there, or, to speak more truly, the only figure; all else serves but as a background for him. He is not one part, not the highest merely in the scale of its creatures, but the lord of all; all the visible creation borrow their wealth and significance from their relationship to him. Such he appears in the ideal worth and dignity of his unfallen condition; even now, when only a broken fragment of the sceptre with which he once ruled the world remains in his hands, such he is commanded to regard himself still.Trench.
Man a King.Man is a king; God hath put a crown upon his head, and not only so, but hath given him a territory and subjects (see Gen. 1:26), where what David means by all things is in the same manner enumerated. St. Paul, however, extends the meaning of all things far beyond this. Davids all things and Pauls all things are not the same: the one is thinking of the visible world, the other of the invisible world; the one speaks of that within us, the other of that which is to come. The words may be true of man, but in their higher sense they are truer of Christ as the great Head of mankind, and of man only in Him, in whom only is to be seen their proper fulfilment.J. S. Perowne, D.D.
Mans Authority in Creation.The trust of material things committed to man, as recorded in Gen. 1:26; Gen. 1:28, man has fully responded to. It may be truly said that no living creature has been unable to yield to his authority: no nature-force has refused to be yoked to do his bidding; and no combination of difficult circumstances has baffled his masterfulness. But man has failed to rule himself. Having made the fatal mistake in not ruling himself, he cannot now recover his power of moral self-command. Christ, the ideal Man, came to this world to give man back his lost power over himself. His redemption is the recovery of man to his ideal. It is the completing of mans supremacy over everything, by winning for him the supremacy over himself. The sign of mans limited supremacy is his absolute inability to mate and master death, which is the issue and seal of sin. Before death man stands morally helpless, because before sin he is ineffective. Then the Saviour of man must show that He can, as man, deal efficiently with sin, by dealing, as man, efficiently with death. In mans name, and for man, and as man, Jesus wrestled with death, and conquered it; and so He has gained for man his full supremacy. In Christ all things are now put under him.
Burning the Earth.Any one casually reading this verse might imagine that the last clause refers to the thorns and briars, especially as this idea seems to be supported by comparison of the passage with Isa. 9:18; Isa. 23:12, etc. The original Greek, however, for whose () is in the singular number, and must relate to the land, which beareth thorns and briars. St. Paul alludes to the custom, common to the Romans, and other heathen nations, of burning the barren fields, or, rather, the stubble, etc., standing upon them, according to Virgil, who, in his book on husbandry (Georg., i. 84), lays down this rule:
Tis well to set on fire the barren fields,
And burn in crackling flames the stubble light.
Heb. 2:8-9. Manhood crowned in Jesus.The text brings before us a threefold sight. It bids us look around; and if that sadden us, it bids us look up, and thence it bids us draw confidence to look forward. There is an estimate of present facts, there is a perception by faith of the unseen fact of Christs glory, and there follows from that the calm prospect for the future for ourselves and for our brethren.
I. Look at the sight around us.We see not yet all things put under man. It is a sight of human incompleteness. Where are the men of whom any portion of the psalmists words are true. Look at themare these the men of whom he sings? Visited by God! crowned with glory and honour! having dominion over the works of His hands! Is this irony or fact?
1. Let consciousness speak.
2. Let biographies speak.
3. Let observation speak.
II. Look upwards to Jesus.Christ in glory appears to the author of this epistle to be the full realisation of the psalmists ideal. Our text deals only with the exalted dignity and present majesty of the ascended Lord; but both the ascended Christ upon the throne, and the historical Christ upon tho earth, teach us what man may be, the one in regard of dignity, the other in regard of goodness. Here is a fact. Such a life was verily once lived on eartha life of true manhood, whatever more it was. And that life is to be our standard. In Jesus Christ is the type; and, albeit it is alone in its beauty, yet it is more truly a specimen of manhood than the fragmentary, distorted, incomplete men are who are found everywhere besides. Christ is the power to conform us to Himself, as well as the pattern of what we may be. But what does Scripture teach us to see in the exalted Lord?
1. A perpetual manhood. There is a strong tendency in many minds to think of Christs incarnation and humanity as transitory, the wearing of a garb of human nature but for a moment. The Biblical representation is, that for evermore, by an indissoluble union, the human is assumed into the Divine, and that to-day and for ever He remains the Man Christ Jesus. Without this truth, that mighty work which He ever carries on, of succouring them that are tempted, and having compassion with us, were impossible.
2. A corporeal manhood. The resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ are our great reasons for believing that man, in his perfect condition, has body as well as spirit. And that belief is one chief means of giving definiteness and reality to our anticipations of a future life.
3. Transfigured manhood. The natural body changed into the spiritual body.
4. Sovereign manhood. Here is a Man exalted to absolute, universal dominion.
III. Look forward.The day is coming wherein men shall be all that God proposed, and all that their Saviour is. Christ is the measure of mans capacities. He is the true pattern of human nature. Christ is the prophecy and pledge of mans dominion. From Christ comes the power by which the prophecy is fulfilled, and the pattern reproduced in all who love Him. He is more than PatternHe is Power; more than SpecimenHe is Source; more than ExampleHe is Redeemer. The answer to my own evil conscience, to the sad inferences from mans past and present, to the conclusions which are illegitimately sought to be extended from mans material place in a material universe to mans spiritual place as an immortal and moral being, lies in that twofold sight,Christ on His cross the measure of mans worth in the eyes of God, and of mans place in the creation; Christ on the throne the prophecy of mans dignity, and of His most sure dominion.A. Maclaren, D.D.
Heb. 2:9. The Bitter Cup.Jesus on the cross! Why is He there? By the force of circumstances? Hell and earth had conspired against Him. Every power and device which malice could summon are there to play their infernal part in His crucifixion. He dies by the hand of the law, moved by hatred; nobut by the grace of God. Did He die for expediency sake? Must one life be sacrificed to assert the rights of truth and justice? Nobut by the grace, etc. For God so loved the world, etc., and delivered Him up for us all. The cup was sometimes the emblem of bitterness. So in Isa. 51:17 : Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. The cup of hemlock. And He said in Gethsemane, The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it? They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink (Psa. 69:21).
I. The death of Christ was an act of voluntary submission to the will of the Father.The admiral of the Orient had a beautiful son of thirteen years, who was on board with him in the battle of the Nile. He was at his post according to his fathers orders when the ship took fire, and he stood at his post until the powder magazine was fired, and the ship blown to atoms. This is a faint picture of the terrible sufferings through which the Son of God passed. In the garden the storm began to rage, and the flames issued from the hold; then He cried, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. But there was no answer. Again He cried, with blood-sweat running down His brow, but no answer. The storm raged more furiously. The nails are driven through His hands and feet. He is on the cross, and the flames of hell are burning around Him. He cried again, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? But no answer. Crash goes the vessel, and down He sank into the gulf of death. It is finished! The heavens are black with the smoke. The earth trembles. The old ship of the ceremonial law which had weathered many storms, and borne thousands of precious souls on its deck to glory, is totally wrecked. The old Aaronic priesthood is shattered, and the Son of God goes down in the catastrophe to show that there is One who obeys the Divine behests even unto death. All ye fallen angels behold Him, and ye stiff-necked sons of men witness the One who follows the Captains orders to the bitter end! For this cause the Father loveth Me, etc. Lo, I come, O God, to do Thy will, etc. He tasted death by the grace of God, and the cup was drained by the lip of love.
II. The death of Christ is the highest demonstration of Gods mercy.The gracious promise at Edens gatethe womans seed; the breath of mercy tempering the moral law on Sinai, Keeping mercy for thousands, etc.all was mercy. As the lamb dies on the ancient altar, mercy speaks of repentance and peace. On Calvary wisdom is out of sight, power is in the shade; but mercy stands before justice in full array. Jesus dies because God is merciful.
III. The death of Christ is the mightiest instrument for mans salvation.It is the lever with which God lifts up the human race. It has opened the way to the Fathera sacrifice for sin. In the light of the cross justice shines brighter than in the bowers of Eden. He has made the law honourable. Be not afraid; the living way to the Father through His flesh is straight and safe. It has dealt a deadly blow to sin. The hero and the suitors. Taking down the old bow, and striking home the arrow. Sin dies: the death-scene and funeral were witnessed on Calvary.
IV. Jesus is crowned with everlasting glory.There is no more bitterness in the cup.Weekly Pulpit.
Heb. 2:10. The Physical Suffering, or Cross of Christ.The apostle is here virtually making answer to Anselms famous question, Cur Deus Homo. In the previous verse, finding Jesus made a little lower than the angels, and, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, it is as if the apostles mind began to ask: Why did He suffer thus, or come in the way of suffering at all? Why could not God, the Almighty, strike out the needed salvation by a shorter method, without suffering, viz. by His omnipotent force? Whereupon He makes answer, virtually, that force is out of the question, because the needed salvation is a purely moral result, which can be accomplished only by moral means and motives. The declaration of the apostles answer is, that God, the Almighty, must needs work morally in such a case, and not by force; and that Christ, the Leader, is made perfect, or perfectly competent, as regards the moral new creation, or bringing up into glory, by His cross and the tragic eloquence of His death. Let then our question be: Why should Christ, in the redeeming of souls and bringing them unto glory, subject Himself to physical suffering?what, in other words, were the necessities and uses of that suffering? The question is here confined to physical suffering. He encountered two distinct kinds of sufferingmental and bodilythat which belongs to burdened feeling and wounded sensibility, and that which is caused by outward privation, or violence done against the physical nature. In the New Testament the word suffering is only applied to the latter. But physical suffering, taken by itself, or as being simply what it is in itself, is never a thing of value. On the contrary, it is, so far, a thing on the losing side of existence. It is not, in fact, a commodity of any kind, exchangeable or not exchangeable, but a simple incommodity, a quantity purely negative, and a worse than worthless fact. And this is true of Christs suffering. Taken as physical pain simply, nothing is to be made of it. It has no relation to personal desert; and, regarding the Divine order of the Sufferer, it is even a shocking anomaly, which reason cannot comprehend, and faith only can accept. God does not exact a retributive suffering, even in what is called His justice, because He wants so much in quantity to even the amount of wrong, but only that He may vindicate the right and testify His honour to it by a fit expression. It may be said: Are not the physical sufferings of Christ what are called, in the Scripture, His sacrifice for sin? And what is the use of sacrifice but to atone Gods justice? But the fact is, that all the sacrificial and lustral figures set forth the sacrifice, not as a way of reconciling God to us, but of reconciling us to God. And so universallyI do not know the instance where Christs cross and physical suffering are conceived as a making satisfaction to Gods justice. It is quite conceivable that Christ could have been incarnated into the world in such a way as to involve no physical liability at all. There was no necessary condition of physical suffering implied in His Messiahship. Why then did He come under conditions of suffering? what uses did He expect to serve by it, such as would compensate the loss? It was done that He might be made perfect by such suffering,perfect, that is, not in His character, but in His official competency; perfect as having gotten power over men, through His sufferings, to be the sufficient Bringer-on, or Captain, He undertakes to be, in bringing many sons unto glory. Coming down to do a work of love, He simply took the liabilities of a human person doing such a work. What then is the manner and degree of that power over mens convictions and feelings which Christ obtained by His physical suffering?
I. The manner in which, by His physical suffering, He magnifies and sanctifies the law in mens convictions.The true Christian idea is that Christ is magnifying the law and making it honourable, not before the remote altitudes, but before the sinning souls of this world by whom it has been trampled. Christ came into the world with a perfect right to be exempted from physical suffering. There is nothing in His character to require this kind of discipline, or even to make it just. He also had power to put all suffering by, and sail over the world as the stars do, in a region of calm and comfort above it. But He would not infringe on the penal order of Gods retributions. Having taken humanity, He takes all the judicial liabilities of human society under sin, preferring in this manner to submit Himself to the corporate order of Gods judgments, and testify in that manner His profound homage to law and justice. He will let the world be to Him just that river of vinegar and gall which its sins have made it to itself. So He bears the worlds bitter curse, magnifying, even by His pains, the essential sanctity of law and justice. He powerfully honours that justice in its dealings with the world, by refusing to let even His innocence take Him out of the murderous and bloody element it mixes. Hence the marvellous, unheard of power His life and gospel, and especially His suffering death, have exerted in mens consciences.
II. The physical suffering of Christ has an immediate value, under that great law of human nature, that ordains the disarming of all wrong, and the prostration of all violence, by a right suffering of the evils they inflict.Nothing breaks the bad will of evil so completely as to have had its way, and done its injury, and looked upon its victim. When the wrath of transgression hurls itself upon the Lords person, sparing not His life, nor even letting Him die easily or in respect, the bad will is only the more fatally broken, that, accomplishing so much in a way so dreadful, it has yet accomplished nothing. Suffering kills, how often, the wrong-doing that inflicts it.
III. The sublime morality or moral worth of Jesus could never have been sharply impressed, except for the sensibilities appealed to by His physical suffering.If He had lived in condition, and died as one admired for His excellence, the real depth of His virtue could never have been conceived. All the most effective powers of moral impression contained in His character would have been wanting if He had not borne the lot of wrong and bitter suffering.
IV. It is only by His suffering in the flesh that He reveals or fitly expresses the suffering sensibility of God.As certain as God has any sensibility, such as belongs to a perfect mind and heart, that sensibility must be profoundly moved by all misery, impurity, and wrong. Impassible, physically speaking, He is not impassive to evils that offend or grieve His moral perfections. He suffers because He is a perfect being, and according to the measures of His perfection. This Christ, for our salvations sake, has taken the flesh and suffered even death in order to impress. Nature, in her scenes and objects, had no power to express this moral pain of Gods heart. The ancient providential history was trying, always vainly, to elaborate the same. Nothing could ever express it but the physical suffering of Jesus. And everything turns here on the matter of physical suffering; for, to our coarse human habit, nothing else appears at first to have much reality. And here comes to view the relation of the agony to the cross. One is the reality, the other is the outward sign or symbol. In one view it is even a scandal that we make so much more of the cross than we do of the agony. The grand thing to be revealed is that which stands in the agony; and the superior value of the cross, or physical suffering, lies in the fact that it comes to us, at our low point, speaking to us of the other, in a way that we can feel.
V. It was necessary that Christ should suffer in the body, and get power over men by that kind of suffering, because the world itself is put in a tragic economy, requiring its salvation to be an essentially tragic salvation.Human history is tragic in its characters and scenes, and its material generally. The great crimes are tragic, and the great virtues scarcely less so. So if Christ will pluck away eternal judgment for the world, He must bleed for it. So great a salvation must tear a passage into the world by some tragic woe. The tragic power of the cross takes hold of all that is dullest and hardest and most intractable in our sin, and moves over palsied nature, all through, in mighty throbs of life. And this is Christianity, meeting us just where we most require to be met. Christ is a great Bringer-on for us, because He suffers for us. Christianity is a mighty salvation, because it is a tragic salvation.Horace Bushnell, D.D.
The Moral Necessity for Christs Death.Unlike St. Paul, the writer never enters into what may be called the philosophy of the plan of salvation. He never attempts to throw any light upon the mysterious subject of the antecedent necessity for the death of Christ. He dwells upon Christs death almost exclusively in its relation to us. The expression which he here uses, it was morally fitting for Him, is almost the only one which he devotes to what may be called the transcendent side of Christs sacrificethe death of Christ in its relation to God. The moral fitness here touched upon is the necessity for absolutely sympathetic unity between the High Priest and those for whom He offered the perfect sacrifice (Luk. 24:46). Philo also uses the phrase it became Him.Farrar.
Perfect through Suffering.The text gains clearness if for the word Captain we put the more general term Leader, or read the verse thus: In bringing many sons to glory, to make the Bringer-on of their salvation perfect through suffering. By perfect we understand perfectly efficient to sustain and to fulfil His office, and to accomplish His work, of bringing many sons unto glory.
I. The sufferings of Jesus.
1. Some of the deepest, though least comprehensible, of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus must have come out of His very being and nature. He was God, with all the feeling of God towards sin and its consequences. His body of flesh and blood must have been to Him a constant limitation and burden. That human nature which Jesus took, He took as it wasno longer the perfect thing of the Eden Paradise, but lowered, enfeebled, in some strange ways a bruised and wounded thing, shaped and fitted through long years to be the agency of mans depraved will and sinful soul. A sinful nature the Son of God could not take; but a bodily nature as marred and enfeebled by sin He did take; and we can but very unworthily conceive the strain on His daily life of the effort to utter His pure soul through that frail and feeble body. And that Divine-human being was not set in seclusion, and fitted to a place where no annoyance should reach it. It was put in the very midst of the world, and the worlds worst. A pure soul can only be happy in pure surroundings. Ensphere true goodness in evil, and you may not thereby turn the good to evil, but you cannot help piercing, wounding, grieving, goodness to the very heart.
2. Some of the sufferings of Jesus must have come out of His unusual capacity for sympathy. To sympathise is to have a fellow-feeling with a sufferer, and to take his burden upon our heart. Then if Christ bore the burden of the sins and sorrows of this grief-loaded, weary earth of ours, must He not have suffered? Even love is scarcely possible without suffering. The worthier the love is, the more it makes us one with its object; and if it unites us with his joys, makes us keenly sensible of his sorrows, and deeply touched by his sins.
3. Something of the sufferings of Jesus appear as we consider the work He undertook.
(1) Part of that work was to make men see and feel that God was their Father. The memory of their sufferings and sacrifices on our behalf make precious to us our earthly father and mother. If God is to be apprehended by us as our heavenly Father, it can only be in the revelation of His fatherly sacrifices and sufferings, borne in the endeavour to redeem us, and win us away from evil. But that work Jesus the Son must do. That revelation of the fatherliness of God He must make.
(2) He was to demonstrate to men the evil of sin. Men can never know that save through its consequences. Deaththe death of peace and purity and hopeis the great revealer of sin. So our Lord let men see in Himself the evil of sin. He laid Himself open to the fiercest attacks, and rudest buffetings, and deepest anguish that sin could bring upon a man. He put Himself into our human nature, that in suffering He might show the world what sin is, and what sin can do. The corruption of Greece was shown up when it had spent itself in the hemlock-death of its great teacher Socrates. The utter and hopeless badness of humanity is seen in thismen even turned out and crucified incarnate virtue, in the person of Gods dear Son.
II. How did the sufferings of our Lord fit Him to be the Bringer-on of sons to glory?
1. Those sufferings brought Him experience. God saves moral beings by bringing moral forces to bear on them. He brings the most persuasive influence by giving to us a human Saviour. We want to feel sure that He has experience, and an experience like ours. If He has indeed trodden our valleys of humiliation, then He does know our human life altogether, and can help us.
2. The sufferings of Jesus set Him most fully in the love and trust of His people. He might have been the founder of a religious ceremonial; but a new religious system could never bring any soul to glory. He might have been a great reformer; but a reformation is not necessarily a salvation. He might have been a teacher, with new truths and principles; but to furnish stimulus for the intellect of man is not to change and renew his heart. No man can be really a new man until his heart is reached. Our Lord Jesus, then, if He is to save the world, must get into the worlds heart. He must draw out to Himself the full affection of a mans soul. But how shall that be done? By an exhibition of perfect purity and beauty? Men can admire without loving. By a revelation of Divine claims? Men are too busy to heed them; and unless God utters His laws amid thunders such as those of Sinai, men will not heed. Then let us adore the Divine solution of the mystery. God sets before men a sacrificed, suffering, dying Saviour. No man can pass by the cross of Calvary altogether unmoved, for suffering is sacred to every man. The suffering Saviour gets into the worlds heart, according to His own word, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.
3. The sufferings of Jesus, in their result, showed the way open, through suffering, to glory. Suffering is Gods witness to the evil of sin. Every pain, wrong, passion, disease, is a letter designed to help us in spelling out the abominableness of sin. Yet the grace of God turns the evil into good, changes earthen clay into better than fine gold, compels suffering to become even a pathway to glory. God sent His own Son to tread that pathway first; and He opens the way for us. We watch Him struggling through the common sorrows of a human life, through the over-crowding sorrows of an ignominious death, and we behold Him, at last reaching a throne of everlasting dominion, and seated for ever on the right hand of God. Along that pathway to a like glory He is leading us. Apply:
1. Jesus is the Bringer-on of sons to glory.
2. Jesus is the only Bringer-on.
Heb. 2:11. Christ the Friend.This verse is a statement of the union that exists between Christ and His people, and of the perfect sympathy which the Elder Brother feels for the other members of the family of God.
I. The vitality of the union that exists between Christ and His Church.
1. The union between Christ and a believer is not so much one of co-operation as one of incorporation. For as my limbs are a part of my body, as the branch is part of a tree, so Christ and His people are verily and indeed members one of another. And the union between Christ and His true Churchthe members of His bodycan never be dissolved.
2. Treat this truth as a solemn reality. Do not think of it as a mere theory or doctrine or speculation. It is a great fact to live by day by day.
3. Since the Saviour and His people are together sons of one God, He in His love and condescension annihilates the distance that is between them, and He calls them brethren. He is the firstborn among many brethren. He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
II. Connected with this truth there is the assurance of Christs constancy.There is no sorrow, no emotion, that we need hide from our Brother in heaven; for there is no pang that the members feel which is not felt by Him. Nor is there any interruption to His sympathy.
Application.As Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren, let none of us be ashamed of Him. And remember that to confess Christ is to maintain His authority when it is despised, to uphold His laws when they are contemned, to oppose His enemies where we may make enemies ourselves. Let us thus confess Christ our Friend.Canon Bell.
Heb. 2:11-13. The Perfect Manhood of Christ.Sanctify in the text, and throughout this epistle, does not refer to the cleansing work of the Spirit, but to the atoning work of the Son. The teaching of the text isthe perfect manhood of our blessed Lord.
I. The proposition.That both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. Of one what? Father, family, race, blood, character? No; of one nature (Heb. 2:10). The perfect manhood of the Son of God is part of our faith, and the very foundation of our hope of heaven. The disciples needed all the evidence of His stupendous miracles, the dazzling scene of His transfiguration, the crowning proof of His resurrection, to convince them that He was perfect God; we need to feel that if in any respect He had been unlike His brethren, it would have defeated one great purpose of His mission. He was precisely of one with us.
1. In person. His body, though always a chaste and perfect temple in which the fulness of the Godhead might dwell, had none of that superhuman glory with which we so often associate it. John the Baptist knew Him not till he saw the Spirit descend on Him. Is not this the carpenters son? Mary supposed Him to be the gardener.
2. In this perfect body there was enshrined as perfectly human a soul. The conditions of the Incarnation required that both natures should exist in all their perfectness, in unity of person, but without any confusion of substanceand these two conditions were fulfilled in the Saviour. We have no more right to deify the Saviours manhood than to humanise His Godhead. The human soul of the Saviour was so far distinct from His Deity as to be in every respect finite. His human soul was not possessed of an unassailable purity. As a human soul He wept, He prayed, He suffered.
3. This oneness of nature between the Christian and His Lord is dependent not simply on the memory that He was incarnate once, but on the fact also that He is incarnate now. Never was the Saviour more truly a man than He is now. Note His appearances to His disciples after His resurrection, the manner of His ascension. He is God over all; but no less surely is He perfect Man, throbbing with the memory of human sorrow, touched with the feeling of human infirmity, filled with sympathy for human nature.
II. The confirmation of this doctrine in the Scriptures (Heb. 2:12-13).The first is taken from Psa. 22:22a psalm prophetic of our Lords sufferings.
1. I will declare unto My brethren. This prophecy was fulfilled. No man hath seen God, etc. I have declared Thy name unto them, and I will declare it.
2. In the midst of the Church I will sing praise unto Thee. This was fulfilled. Immediately before His passion they sang a hymn.
3. He engaged in human employments; and while we share in these employments, we are truly of one with Him. What honour! He is not ashamed to call you His brother, sister, mother.
(1) To Christians. How often since you have named the Saviours name has He been ashamed to call you brethren? Are you faithful or faithless? How often ashamed to confess Him before a sneering world? If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father. Seeing then that we have such a High Priest passed into the heavens, Jesus let us come boldly to the throne of grace, etc.
(2) To unconverted. Seek Him now. Religion is here presented in its most alluring form. Come. Plead His atonement, and know what it is to be all of one with Christ.Frederic Greeves, D.D.
Heb. 2:14. The Personality of the Devil.This was one reason why the Son of God took on Him our nature, that He might put Himself into circumstances where death was possible, in order that by dying He might free us from our ancient enemy. He has won the victory, and it is our fault if we are not free.
I. The being who was to be reduced to impotence by the death of Jesus Christ.What do we know about his history, character, his power of affecting ourselves and our destiny? Some say:
1. It is an unpleasant subject. Nothing is gained, and much is lost, by shrinking from fact because fact is disagreeable. Religion, beyond everything else, should have the courage to look truth in the face.
2. The devil is an unprofitable subject for discussion. Much, practically, depends on our believing in him or not. We are more profoundly affected by feeling ourselves close to a living being, than by feeling ourselves under the vague and more intangible influence of a negative principle. When it is embodied in a living intelligencein a living willthe case is very different. How can evil itself be, strictly speaking, a principle! Evil is a perverted selfish quality of the will of an already existing personal creature. Evil could not exist apart from such a creature unless the will of such a creature was free. When we speak of the personality of Satan; we mean that he is an intelligence capable of reflecting on his own existence; he is a will which has had the power of determining its destiny.
II. There is no real room for question as to the existence of a personal evil spirit, if we believe the Bible to be a trustworthy source of information on the subject.All that implies personality is attributed to Satan in Holy Scripture, as distinctly as it is attributed to God. The New Testament representation is fuller and more sustained than that of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ spoke of Satans personality: e.g. in parable of the sower; the saying about Judas; His denunciation of the Jews. His prayer bequeathed to us, Deliver us from the Evil One. The facts of human life bear out what we learn from the lips of Jesus Christ. There are two points in the Christian representation of the Evil One to which attention should specially be given.
1. Satan was not always what he is now. He was once a glorious archangel. He became what he is now by his own act and deed. The Bible always represents Satan, not as a self-existent, evil being, but as a fallen and apostate angel. There is no such thing in the universe of the almighty and all-good God as a self-existing, originally created devil.
2. The Satan of Scripture has limited, although extensive, powers. It is a mistake to think of this being as omnipresent. He is often enough in the waynot alwaysnot everywhere. His power is only for a given period.
III. How can you reconcile the continued toleration of such a being as the Evil One by God, with His attributes of goodness and almightiness?The Master of the universe sees farther than we do, and will one day, perhaps, enable us to understand in a measure these rules of His government which perplex us now.
IV. Let us fix in our minds the words and lessons of the text.Sin brought death. Jesus, as man, invaded this region of human experience, and conquered for Himself and for us its old oppressor. Let us follow the guidance of faith. The lessons of Calvary do not lessen with the lapse of time; and, among these, not the least blessed is the enfeeblement of Satan, and the deliverance of those who, through fear of death, would else be all their lifetime subject to bondage.H. P. Liddon, D.D.
Heb. 2:15. The Fear of Death a Lifelong Bondage.It is not possible to over-estimate the value to humanity of the sanctity of human life. It is the primary law stamped upon the new human race when it stepped forth from the Ark to take possession of a cleansed earth. Whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man (Gen. 9:6). The sanctity of life is the basis of society, for it makes every man jealous of his brothers life for the sake of preserving his own. There is no safety for any one in lands where this primary law for humanity is not recognised. But there is, of necessity, an apparently bad side to this good law. It involves dread of death. And this dread is universal. It applies to all beings in whom is the breath of life. It is natural. But the moral nature of man at once puts a new sanctity on life, and a new dread on death. The moral being man has brought sin into the world, and put a new significance upon death. In the consciousness of having sinned there has come the fear of penalties that must attend upon the sin, and a dread of death as taking us where those penalties must be endured. So the consciousness of sin has put on men a life-long dread of death. And that dread has come to be so stamped upon the race that it seems like a second nature, and the good cannot shake themselves altogether free of it. The saintly soul could only say this much, I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of dying. What can give us liberty from this enslaving fear? Only the possession of a new lifesoul-lifewhich death is altogether powerless to touch. Over the animal-life of man death has its power. Over the real life, the soul-life, when quickened in the power of the Holy Ghost, through faith in Christ, death has no power. The life in Christ is a spiritual and eternal life. Jesus Himself said, He that believeth in Me shall never die. By the new life He gives, He delivers those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb. 2:16-18. Christ made like us in all things.Two points in which Christ was different from us:
1. In being God as well as man.
2. In being without sin. In these things He had to be unlike His brethren, or He could not have been a Saviour at all. In all other things it behoved Him to be made like unto us. There was no part of our condition that He did not humble Himself unto.
1. He passed through all the terms of our life from childhood to manhood. He was an infant of days. He bore the trials and pains of boyhood. He suffered the afflictions and anxieties of manhood.
2. He tasted the difficulties of many situations in life.
3. He had special trials in connection with His own family.
4. He was assailed by Satan.
5. He was tested by God. The purpose of His human experience was:
(1) to make an atonement for our sins;
(2) to succour His people under their trials.R. M. McCheyne.
Heb. 2:17. Priestly Reconciliations.To make propitiation for the sins of the people. There is no attempt to explain precisely how the high priest made the propitiations. Attention is fixed upon his ability to do it; and the ability is found very largely to depend upon his personal character. He could make propitiation because he was a merciful and faithful high priestmerciful by reason of his common experience with those whom he represented. He well understood their sins of frailty and of will, because he shared them. If a rebellious nation sent an intercessor to plead for pardon, they would select one of themselves, one most deeply interested in all their trouble, and the best and most acceptable man among them. That man would not only propitiate by what he said and didhe would propitiate by what he was; for standing before the king, that man would show what the people were, and wanted to be. He would embody the people to the view of the king; and nothing could possibly propitiate a king like such a living persuasion that his people had come to be right, were right, and meant to be right. Along this line the old priestly reconciliations of Mosaism gain simple and natural explanation. The high priest was acceptable to Jehovah, because he was in right relations. But he stood for the people, and they were as acceptable as he, because they were in the same right relations. Along this line the propitiation of Jesus can be explained. He is personally acceptable to God as a man, but He stands before God for all who are in the same relations of purposed love and obedience as He; and they are accepted in and with Him.
Sympathetic Intercession.When a tender-hearted mother would plead with the judge for a child about to be condemned, how would her tears trickle down, what weeping rhetoric would she use to the judge, for mercy! Thus the Lord Jesus is full of sympathy and tenderness (Heb. 2:17), that He might be a merciful High Priest; He has left His passion, yet not His compassion. An ordinary lawyer is not affected with the cause he pleads, nor does he care what way he goes; it is his profit makes him plead, not affection. But Christ intercedes feelingly; it is His own cause which He pleads in the cause of His people.T. Watson.
Heb. 2:18. The Helper of the Tempted.In promise (Gen. 3:15) and in fact (Mat. 4:1) the Saviours work from the very first is associated with the tempted; and put His mission in any words you will, you cannot hide the link which unites Christ unto the tempted, and the tempted unto Christ. Wherefore did we need a Saviour, if not because we were overborne with evil, and of ourselves had not strength enough to cope with it? A Christ who could not help me in my temptations would be no Saviour to me. He might startle me with revelations, astonish me by works, amaze me with power, awe with holiness, instruct me by teaching; but if in the infirmity of my moral weakness He could not stand by my side, put His shoulder to my shoulder, and help me to fight the daily battle of my daily life, whatever else He might be to me, He could never be my Saviour; for it is only as we are made strong to resist and overcome temptation that we can be saved. This relation of Christianity to the tempted is, in fact, one of the secrets of its hold upon the human heart. To be a Christian at all we must start from the consciousness of weakness; and the religion of Christ is the religion of the strong, only by being first the religion of the weak. Christ is the Helper of the tempted, by sympathy learnt in the endurance of the same temptations from which He came to save. Some things can only be learnt by experience. Sympathy is one. There were some things which were not Christs to know, until like us, by bitter human experience, He had learnt them for Himself. He shared our experience of temptation in its full completeness. Wherever we are tempted, so was Hethrough the senses, the appetite, the reason, the imagination, the affection, the ambition, the willtempted wherever there seemed a point of vantage for the tempter. The three temptations on the threshold of His public work were representative. They were representative of temptations in His unrecorded history, of the number and intensity of which we can form no idea. We cannot too fully accept the great doctrine of the completeness of our Lords humanity. By sympathy, learnt through the temptations of a common human experience, Christ is the Helper of the tempted. But sympathy does not seem enough; we want strength. Will this sympathy of Christ bring us strength? It will. The sphere of sympathy is spiritual, and within that sphere there is nowhere to be found such strength as that which comes from sympathy. Its power is electric. Men, naturally cowards, by sympathy have been made brave, and there is no trial of human suffering which sympathy has not enabled men and women courageously to bear. Amongst the worlds regenerating influences there is none for a moment comparable to the sympathy of Christ. For the sympathy of the strong helps always to strengthen the weak. If I wanted to strengthen a morally weak man, I would link him with a man as strong as he was weak, quite sure that the companionship would act on him like a tonic, or be to him like the sweet, fresh breath of mountain air. And thus it is that Christ, in His great sinless strength, is the Helper of the tempted. Let this be no empty doctrine to you, no mere point of theology, or article in a creed, void of all reality and force. Let it be a living truth, as vital as your own hearts blood. It will nerve you for mastery over the infirmities of your nature. It will inspire you to resist the evils of an evil world. And it will help you to victories of faith and love, to conquests of conscience, and of character like unto your Lords.Johnson Barker, LL.B.
Experience the Secret of Moral Power.He himself hath suffered being tempted. The reality of our Lords human experiences is constantly enforced by the apostles. In the early days of the Church there was a tendency to present the Divinity of Christ in such a way as to imperil the truth of His real, flesh and blood, humanity. It was thought derogatory to a Divine Saviour to represent Him as sharing the common woes of the human lot. But unless we see worthily our Lords veritable humanity, it must be impossible for us to understand how He can be a power of redemption to us. He is our Saviour only through His manhood.
I. Moral beings can only learn through experience.A moral being is not intellectual only. He has a further sphere of feeling and emotion. He is a being with a will, which can be influenced by his mind, but is much more influenced by principles and feelings. And experience alone affects the feelings. See how a moral being is made, and is developed. Life does it; experience does it: learning can do but a little of it. Christ could not have taken rank with us as a moral being if He had not shared the experience which makes us moral beings. In all points tempted like as we are.
II. Moral beings get power to help one another only through a common experience.It is somewhat strikingly said of Tennyson that he had no experience of vice, and so all the sins in his poetry are human frailties. It is constantly observed that the best religious workers in any class of society are persons belonging to the class who have full experience of the class. If Christ was to gain moral power to help man, He must have the experience of man, of all that is essential to man, not of all that is accidental to sin. The experience of mans conflicts was essential, but not the experience of mans defeats. It is not essential to man to fail in the moral struggle. Illustrate from mans moral power to
(1) sympathise with;
(2) to strengthen;
(3) to advise;
(4) to deliver, his brother. He can only do it out of experience. This must be true of Christ as the typical moral Helper of humanity.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Heb. 2:10. Captain of our Salvation.We are the soldiers of Jesus Christ. Now that which nerves the soldiers arm and strengthens his heart as he goes forth to battle, is not so much the multitude of the army of which he forms a part, as the character of the chief whom he is following. It is related that in one of the Duke of Wellingtons battles a portion of the army was giving way, under the charge of the enemy, when he rode into the midst of them. A soldier called out in ecstasy, Theres the dukeGod bless him! Id rather see his face than a whole brigade; and these words, turning all eyes to their chief, so reassured his comrades that they repulsed the foe. For he is beside us, they felt, who was never defeated yet, and will not be defeated now. A military friend with whom I conversed on this subject said, that though he had never heard the anecdote, he could well conceive it to be true: the presence of that distinguished general, he added, was at any time worth five thousand men.Tait.
Perfect as applied to Christ.The Greek word translated perfect, which occurs very often in this epistle, was used among the heathen in a specific sense; for instance, one thoroughly initiated into the arcana, or other mysteries, was called a perfect man. The meaning was not morally or personally perfect, but thoroughly acquainted with all the facts or mysteries of the caste or service. Our blessed Lord was made perfect by being thoroughly acquainted with human nature in all its points, save that of sin, and so became the author of eternal salvation by being initiated into all the sorrows and woes of humanity.Dr. Cumming.
Blessings coming through Suffering.In proportion as a horse is well trained and gentle, he had to suffer in being broken in. The white beautiful teeth of a little child, that look so much like ivory, cause much pain before they grow up in that regular row. A gentleman in Hartford (America) had a beautiful little daughter. But oh, how her parents grieved when they found that she was deaf and dumb, and could never speak or hear. She was bright and lovely, and no child among them all nestled so near a fathers heart as little Alice; and so anxious was he for her, that he had no rest till the Deaf and Dumb Asylum was established, at which hundreds of such unfortunate children have been educated; so that all this great good may be said to have grown out of the sufferings of little Alice.Dr. Todd.
Heb. 2:14. Christs Victory over Satan.When the devils saw Christ on the cross, there stood the exulting fiend, smiling to himself, Now I have the King of glory in my dominion, I have the power of death, and I have the power over the Lord Jesus. He exerted that power till Christ died in bitter anguish. But how short-lived was that hellish victory, how brief the Satanic triumph! When Christ cried, It is finished! He shook the gates of hell. Down from the cross the Conqueror leaped, pursued the fiend with thunder-bolts of wrath. Swift to the shades of hell did the fiend fly, and swift descending went the Conqueror after him, and seizing him, dragged him to His chariot-wheeldragged him up the steeps of glory, the angels shouting all the while. He had led captivity captive, and received gifts for men.C. H. Spurgeon.
Life given for life.When Mahomet, the second of that name, besieged Belgrade, in Servia, one of the captains at last got upon the wall of the city, with his colours displayed. A noble Bohemian espying this, ran to the captain, and clasping him fast about his middle, asked one Capistranus, standing beneath, whether it would be any danger of damnation to his soul if he should cast himself down headlong with that dog (so he termed the Turkish captain), to be slain with him. Capistranus answered that it was no danger at all to his soul. The Bohemian forthwith tumbled himself down, with the Turk in his arms, and so by his own death saved the life of all the city. Such an exploit as this Christ plays upon the devil. The devil, like the great Turk, besieged not only one city, but even all mankind. Christ alone, like this noble Bohemian, encountered with him; and seeing the case was so, that this dog, the devil, could not be killed stark dead, except Christ died also, therefore He made no reckoning of His own life, but gave Himself to death for us, that He only dying for all the people, by His death our deadly enemy might for ever be destroyed.Old Author, 1610.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D.
He is superior to angels in recovering mans dominion of the earth: Heb. 2:5-18
1)
Original dominion of the earth by Gods people, lost through sin, to be restored through Christ: Heb. 2:5-9.
Text
Heb. 2:5-9
Heb. 2:5 For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak. Heb. 2:6 But one hath somewhere testified, saying,
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
Or the Son of man, that Thou visitest him?
Heb. 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels;
Thou crownedst him with glory and honor,
And didst set him over the works of thy hands:
8 Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He subjected all things unto him, He left nothing that is not subjected to him, But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. 9 But we behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He should taste of death for every man.
Paraphrase
Heb. 2:5 For although the angel (Exo. 23:20.) who conducted the Israelites had Canaan subjected to him, to the angels God hath not subjected the world which is to come, the possession of which is the salvation of which we speak.
Heb. 2:6 Now, that the Son of God was to be made flesh, and, in the flesh, was to be appointed King universal, David in a certain place, Psa. 8:4, plainly testified, saying, What is the first man that Thou shouldst remember him; or the posterity of the first man, that Thou shouldst take such care of them?
Heb. 2:7 For, to save them from perishing, thou wilt make Him, who is thy Son, for a little while less than angels, by clothing Him with flesh, and subjecting Him to death: After that, Thou wilt crown Him with glory and honor, by raising Him from the dead, and wilt set Him over the works of Thy hands, as Ruler and Lord of all.
Heb. 2:8 Thou wilt put all things under His feet. See Eph. 1:22. Wherefore, by subjecting all things to Him, God will leave nothing unsubjected; consequently, there is nothing over which His power will not at length finally prevail. But at present we do not yet see all things subjected to Him; for evil angels and wicked men are still unsubdued by Him:
Heb. 2:9 But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made less than angels, by appearing in the flesh, that, through the gracious appointment of God, He might die, not for the Jews only, but on account of everyone: Him we see, for the suffering, of death, crowned with glory and honour, by His resurrection and ascension. And these are sufficient proofs, that all His enemies shall finally be subdued by Him.
Comment
1.
The Catholic Bible (revision of the Challoner Rheims version) states it this way:
for He has not subjected to angels the world to come.
C.B. footnote: To come here means the Christian dispensation, not the future life.
2.
Footnote to American Standard version: The inhabited earth. However, observe that it is the inhabited earth to come.
3.
Was this world subjected to man?
Yes:
See Gen. 1:28 : And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
4.
Was it ever lost by man?
a.
Yes, says Calvin: As soon then as Adam alienated himself from God through sin, he was justly deprived of the good things which he had receivedThe wild beasts ferociously attack us, those who ought to be awed by our presence are dreaded by us, some never obey us, others can hardly be trained to submit, and they do us harm in various ways; the earth answers not our expectations in cultivating it; the sky, the air, the sea and other things are often adverse to us, (P. 57)
b.
Yes, says Milligan: But in consequence of sin, man has in a great measure lost his dominion. See Gen. 3:15-24. (p. 82)
5.
Was it lost to everyone? Did someone take over when man lost the dominion?
Milligan believes this is what occurred, For a time Satan got possession of this world. (p. 82)
a.
Psa. 68:18 : Thou hast ascended on high; Thou has led away captives.
b.
Joh. 12:31 : Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
c.
Joh. 14:30 : I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh and he hath nothing in Me.
d.
Joh. 16:11 : The prince of this world hath been judged.
e.
2Co. 4:4 : In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.
f.
2Co. 2:2.
g.
1Jn. 5:19.
h.
Rev. 12:9.
the world to come
What is the world to come?
a.
Observe the footnotethe inhabited earth.
b.
Observe the Catholic Bible comment, which says that it means the Christian Dispensation, not the future life.
c.
Milligan: The world to come is not that which we hope for after the resurrection, but that which began at the beginning of Christs kingdom; but it will no doubt have its full accomplishment in our final redemption. (p. 58)
d.
Newell: The thought of the world to come pervades the book of Hebrews, and cannot here refer to present things. (p. 43)
e.
Thayer defines world to come: That consummate state of all things which will exist after Christs return from heaven.
f.
Connybeare: The world to come here corresponds with the city to come of Heb. 13:14.
what is man that thou art mindful of him
This is an interesting question. What is man?
a.
He is very little, physically.
1.
For labor in China, India, Tibet, he receives a few cents a day.
2.
For length of life, very little.
a)
Jas. 4:14 : life is a vapor.
b)
Animals and trees outlive man. Some turtles are centuries old.
3.
His strength is very little:
a)
A human baby is the most helpless of creatures.
b)
Animals are faster and stronger.
4.
Yet, man gives great significance to the flesh as he lives for its gratification.
b.
Mentally, he is worth more.
1.
He is able to rule the animals of the earth.
2.
He can alter nature itself.
a)
Harness the waterfalls to make power.
b)
Capture the rivers to turn dynamos.
c)
Improve upon plants, making hybrids.
3.
He can discover the secrets of the world.
a)
With the telescope, he scans the heavens.
b)
With the microscope, he examines the unseen.
c)
He combats disease.
d)
He combines elements to build machines for mans own good.
4.
Although mans mental attainments are temporary, people live as though they were of prime importance.
c.
Spiritually, his worth is immeasurable:
1.
God is interested in each person individually.
a)
Physically, yes:
1)
Mat. 10:30 : hairs of your head are numbered.
2)
Luk. 12:27 : consider the lilies
3)
Mal. 3:10 : open you the windows of heaven
b)
Mentally, yes:
1)
Man is made in the intellectual likeness of God. Heb. 2:7-8.
2)
Gen. 1:26 : In Our image.
c)
Spiritually, more so;
(1)
Mat. 10:32; shall confess Me before man
(2)
Joh. 3:16. God so loved the worldthat He gaveHis Son.
(3)
Jas. 4:14 : What is your life? It is even a vapor.
2.
The giving of Jesus is Gods attempt to show mans greatness;
a)
He did not send an angel or offer an animal.
b)
His Sons pain, sorrow, and death is proof of Gods love. Historically, what is man?
a.
Man as God made him:
1.
Gen. 2:7 : He made him as dust.
a)
Scientifically, man is: 10 gallons of water, 24 pounds of carbon, 7 pounds of lime, 1 pounds of phosphorous, teaspoonful of sugar, 4 teaspoonfuls of salt, some oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, enough iron for 1 large nail.
b)
If this is all of which man consists, a man could be purchased for .79c (before inflation).
c)
A scientist, curator of Northwestern Department of Chemistry, once valued mans body at .98c. Now, in 1960, it is worth $31.04.
d)
An estimate of your day: Your heart beats 103,689 times a day. Your blood travels 168,000,000 miles. You give off 85.6 degrees Fahrenheit in heat, which means you generate 450 foot tons of energy. You exercise 7,000,000 brain cells.
b.
Heb. 2:7-8 : Crowned him with glory and honor.
c.
Made him a trinity:
1.
1Th. 5:23 : May your spirit, soul, and body be preserved.
2.
JesusMat. 22:37 : Love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart . . . thy mind and . . . thy soul.
What is man as sin makes him?
a.
Sin makes him brutal.
1.
Cain slew Abel.
2.
The wealthy live in luxury, while the poor starve.
3.
The powerful plunge men into war.
4.
A man can kidnap babies for gold.
5.
A man can live on an animal level, which will bring him to destruction. 2Pe. 2:10-12.
b.
Sin makes him dirty and diseased.
c.
Sin makes him rebellious toward God.
1.
1Jn. 3:4 : Sin is transgression of Gods law.
d.
Sin makes him purposeless. Dr. Shirley once told of a certain youth who was seven days in New York. He saw eighteen shows, but was oblivious to the libraries, scenic, and historic spots there to see. He spent the last day reading a true story.
Man as Christ remakes him.
a.
See how Christ can change people:
1.
Woman of SamariaJoh. 4:6 : five husbands, but she came to Christ and became a soul-winner.
2.
Paul, a cruel persecutor of church, was transformed.
3.
Begbies, in Twice Born Men, proves His power. Get this book and read it!
b.
He gives people a purpose in life.
1.
Soul winning.
2.
Helping the needy.
3.
Working for the eternal, in place of the temporal.
c.
He makes them rise above the temporal.
1.
Richestreasures laid up in heaven.
2.
Emphasis is placed upon the eternal.
Son of Man
Who is referred to here, man or Christ?
a.
Arguments for Christ being referred to:
1.
Similar expressions are made in reference to Christ:
a)
Mat. 21:16quotes from Psa. 8:2 : Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou has perfected praise.
b)
Eph. 1:22 : And He put all things in subjection under his feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.
c)
1Co. 15:27 : For, He put all things in subjection under His feet, but when He saith all things are put in subjection, it is evident that He is excepted who did subject all things unto Him.
1)
The translator has noted in the margin that this is a quotation from Psa. 8:6.
2)
This passage in Corinthians, some say, refers to Christ.
2.
Much is made of the alternate reading of Heb. 2:7! A little while lower.
a)
Even Calvin, who holds that Psalms 8 refers to man, feels that Paul turns here from David and designates the abasement of Christs humiliation. (p. 58.)
b)
Some insist that since the Logos could not die, a body was prepared for Him so that He could die, b. Arguments for man in general being referred to:
1.
Because it is a visitation of God from generation to generation.
2.
When did God visit Jesus? God was with Jesus all the time; on the cross would be an exception.
3.
Because we know what Christ is, who He is, It would not be necessary to raise such a question about the Lord.
4.
Because God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.
5.
Because the writer later calls specific attention to Christ, cf. Heb. 2:9.
6.
God didnt visit His Son, but visited man through His Son.
7.
The 8th Psalm is a discussion of man.
8.
Man is lower than the angels, 2Pe. 2:11 : Whereas angels though greater in might and power bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.
9.
Authorities who say Psalms 8 does not refer to Christ:
a)
Milligan says: That this has reference to mankind in general and not to Jesus Christ personally considered, as some have alleged, is evident from the Psalm itself, as well as from the scope of the apostles argument. (p. 85)
b)
John Calvin: It seems to be unfitly applied to Christ . . . The Psalm speaks not of any particular person, but of all mankindThis affords no reason why the words should not be applied to the person of Christ. (p. 56)
that thou visitest him
What is the difference between mindful and visitest
a.
Visit is the effect of Gods mindfulness.
b.
Since God recognized man, He visits man with blessings out of His loving heart.
Gods visiting is twofold:
a.
He visits for good to bring blessings.
1.
Joseph said to his brethren: God will visit you and bring you out of the land.
2.
Luk. 1:68 : For He hath visited and wrought redemption for His people.
a)
This is the most important visitation, although dozens of verses can be quoted to show Gods physical blessings such as named by Joseph.
b)
How grateful lonely people are when guests visit them, but here is named the greatest Visitor.
b.
He visits man to punish him:
1.
He has in the past:
a)
Exo. 32:34 : I will visit their sin upon them
b)
Psa. 89:32 : Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
c)
Jer. 10:15 : In the time of visitation they shall perish.
d)
Exo. 20:5 : Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children for the third and fourth generations.
e)
Exo. 34:7, Num. 14:18, and Deu. 5:9.
2.
He will in the future:
2Pe. 3:8-13.
Thou madest him a little lower
Observe that the footnote in the A.S. version says, For a little while lower.
Milligan says, It is still a question with the critics whether the word little is expressive of time or degree.
Who holds for the time element?
a.
Those who say Son of Man refers to Christ.
1.
They say it means a little while, and designates the abasement of Christs humiliation.
2.
Since Christ the Logos would not die, a body was prepared for Him so that He could die.
If we do not try to push this theory, we have man a little lower than the angels:
a.
Christ was praised by angels at His birth: Glory to God in the highest, not because He was made lower than the angels.
b.
Man is ministered to by angels (Heb. 1:14); so we may conclude that, in some sense at least, we are lower.
Is man lower than the angels according to other scriptures? Yes: 2Pe. 2:11 : Whereas angels though greater in might and power bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.
Thou crownedst him with glory and honor
This was true of Adam in his pre-sin state.
a.
Genesis 1 : He was given dominion over fish, birds, cattle, over all the earth and every creeping thing.
b.
Psa. 8:1-8.
Milligan states that glory and honor are nearly synonymous in both Hebrew and Greek, and they are used for the sake of emphasis, (p. 86) If this verse applies to Christ, it would apply after His resurrection.
and didst set him over the works of Thy hands
Critics reject this passage, but it occurs frequently in manuscripts:
a.
Milligan says, It is found in the original Hebrew, in the Septuagint and in several manuscripts. I am therefore inclined to retain it (p. 86)
b.
It is in harmony with other scriptures.
Note mans responsibility over the creation:
a.
Gen. 2:15 : dress it and keep it
b.
Gen. 1:28 : have dominion
under Ids feet
The scriptures quoted above verify this:
a.
After Adams sin things become different for man.
b.
The earth brought forth weeds and animals turned upon him, so that they are now called wild beasts and domesticated beasts.
Man was the crowning glory of God, but sin caused him to lose much of his dominion.
subjected to him
This fits man perfectly:
a.
Once everything in the sea, air, and earth was beneath man.
b.
Now it is a different picture. Who would dare to go unarmed into a jungle?
c.
Mans lost estate is described. Some make it apply to Christ.
a.
When was everything subjected to Christ? When was it taken away?
b.
1Co. 15:25-27, is quoted by those who hold this theory.
1.
They do show similarity, but that is not proof.
2.
Heb. 2:8, does not fit Jesus, although a stretching of points can make it fit.
The verses purpose is to show that man is no longer king.
a little lower than the angels, even Jesus
Christ was lower only as He took upon himself the role of man:
a.
In this way He was lowerin suffering.
b.
In his flesh, He was lower than the heavenly bodies of angels. The author picks out the one Person lower than angels Who will be able to restore man to a place of glory and honor.
crowned with glory and honor
On earth, Jesus became a wise being, humiliated and crucified. This He came to do, and His obedience brought Him to Gods right hand. Without suffering, He could not have died; without dying He could not have made atonement; without the atonement man would yet be in his sins:
1)
Mat. 26:28 : shed for the remission of sins
2)
Heb. 9:22 : without the shedding of blood there is no remission
When was this glory and honor given?
a.
Not on earth, for here He had to suffer.
b.
Peter preached this after Christs ascension.
that by the grace of God He should taste of death for every man.
This shows the impelling motivegrace:
a.
Man rebels, but God seeks man.
b.
Man is ungracious, but God is gracious, This states the importance of Christs death:
a.
Mat. 20:28 : a ransom.
b.
1Pe. 1:18-19 : redeemed with precious blood.
Why is blood used for mans redemption?
a.
Let the scriptures speak:
Gen. 2:17 : Life was lost.
Gen. 9:4 : Life is in the blood. Compare Lev. 17:14.
Life being lost, blood which has life is the price of redemption.
Study Questions
202.
What is man, according to Jas. 4:14?
203.
Where does man rate physically? cf. Mat. 10:30; Luk. 12:27.
204.
Where does man rate mentally? cf. Heb. 2:7-8; Gen. 1:26.
205.
Where does man rate spiritually?
206.
Where does man rate as a ruler?
207.
What is man, according to Genesis?
208.
What is he according to 1Th. 5:23; Mat. 22:37?
209.
What is man as sin makes him?
210.
Give illustrations of people made over by Christ.
211.
Who is referred to as Son of Man, Christ or man?
212.
Where does the scripture concerning the Son of man appear originally?
213.
Is it prophetic?
214.
Does Paul in Corinthians throw any light on this subject? cf. 1Co. 15:27.
215.
Why do some think the 8th Psalm is referred to here?
216.
Give arguments to show that the 8th Psalm refers only to man.
217.
If we are uncertain at this point, is the total teaching lost? What is being taught?
218.
For what purposes has God visited man?
219.
Are such visits all over, or will they be repeated? cf. 2Pe. 3:8-13, 1Th. 4:13-18.
220.
Give an exegesis of Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels.
221.
If Christ is referred to, how long was He a little lower than the angels?
222.
Is man lower than angels? cf. Heb. 1:14; 2Pe. 2:11.
223.
Does the term little refer to time or degree? Give reasons.
224.
If Christ is crowned with glory and honor, when was He crowned?
225.
Did man ever rule over the creation of Gods hands? cf. Gen. 1:28; Gen. 2:15.
226.
Does Heb. 2:8 describe a lost dominion of man?
227.
What is meant by under His feet?
228.
Does the term domesticated animals indicate that all is not subject to Him?
229.
What proof is there that man does not rule everything now?
230.
What rebels against man?
231.
What seems to be the purpose of Heb. 2:8?
232.
Who is beheld in Heb. 2:9?
233.
How was Christ lower than the angels?
234.
Is there any doubt over Heb. 2:9 as there is over Heb. 2:8?
235.
When was He crowned with glory and honor?
236.
What is the difference between glory and honor?
237.
What is meant by the grace of God?
238.
Define the meaning of, taste of death.
239.
Why were death and blood used as the means of redemption? cf. Gen. 2:17; Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:14.
240.
Who is the one Person able to restore man to his dominion and power?
241.
Was the thought expressed in Heb. 2:9 preached on Pentecost?
242.
What does Heb. 2:10 say was becoming to God?
243.
What about His nature would constrain Him?
244.
Does it carry the idea of expediency?
245.
What is meant by for Whom are all things?
246.
Does Christ have all things now?
247.
What does 1Co. 15:24 have to say in this regard?
248.
Does through Whom are all things refer to God, Christ, or both?
249.
Discuss Act. 17:28; Joh. 1:3; Joh. 1:10; Col. 1:16-17.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(5) For.There is a very clear connection between this verse and Heb. 1:14. Angels are but ministering spirits, serving God in the cause of those who shall inherit salvation; for not to angels is the world to come made subject. But the connection with Heb. 2:2-3, is equally important: the salvation that is now given has been proclaimed not by angels but by the Lord, and it is God Himself who works with the messengers of the Lord; for not unto angels, &c. The word salvation binds together this section and the first. (See Heb. 1:14; Heb. 2:2; Heb. 2:10.)
Hath he not put in subjection.Better, did He subject; for the reference is to the passage quoted in the following verses, which is already in the writers thought. He: God, speaking in the prophetic Scripture.
The world to come.The same expression occurs in the English version of Heb. 6:5, but in the Greek world is represented by entirely different words. Here, as in Heb. 1:6, the meaning is inhabited earth, world of man; there, the word properly relates to time, age. Is the world to come still future, or is it here looked at from the Old Testament point of view? (See Heb. 1:2.) The following verses (especially Heb. 2:9) make it clear that the period referred to is that which succeeds the exaltation of Christ. We ourselves cannot but markedly distinguish the present stage of Messiahs kingdom from the future; but in the perspective of prophecy the two were blended. The thought of this kingdom amongst men has been present from the first verses of the Epistle onwards; hence, whereof we speak.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(5-18) It was needful that Jesus, as Author of salvation to man, should in all points be made like to those whom He saves, and in their likeness suffer and die; thus He becomes for them a merciful and faithful High Priest.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. For Illustration. All this danger of offending a divine dignity is true, for Christ is lord of our dispensation. The development of thought is this: Heb 2:5 declares that angels rule not this dispensation: Heb 2:6-8 quote the psalmist’s description of man, (as in his first paradisaic state,) made ideal ruler of the lower creation: Heb 2:8 declares how complete that supremacy was, nothing being excepted; but it adds that now, (since the fall,) that subjection is annulled: Heb 2:9 descries that supremacy potentially restored in one, namely, Jesus, who is divinely so exalted as that he may be a glorious atoning sufferer for every man. It is this glorious divine Sufferer who, identifying himself with man by being man, restores the primitive exaltation of man. Beautifully does our author meet those who would revolt from Christ on account of the suffering of the cross, by showing that it was a suffering glorified by the divinity of the Sufferer.
Unto the angels Not only was the Law given through angels, but the entire old dispensation was rife with angelic over-rulings, either of subordinate angels or transient phenomena of the Angel-Jehovah, who thus anticipated in shadow his incarnation. That angelic guidance led Israel from Egypt.
Moses declares, (Num 20:16🙂 “When we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt.” And God says, (Exo 23:20🙂 “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.” And Exo 23:23: “Mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites and I will cut them off.” And so the last of the prophets, Malachi, (Mal 3:1,) predicts the incarnate Lord himself under the title “Messenger (or Angel) of the Covenant.” It was not until the time of the Captivity that Israel came fully to form the conception, as we learn from Daniel, that even secular nations were overruled by angels. Dan 10:13; Dan 10:20; Dan 12:1. Against Michael, the prince of the people of God, there stood a “prince of Persia” and “of Grecia.” The Jewish doctors then read the same idea into Deu 32:8, which the Seventy translates, “When the Almighty divided the nations, he set the borders of them according to the number of the angels of God.” This, Rabbi Menahem paraphrases, “He placed seventy angels over the seventy nations.” See our note preceding Luk 10:1. But under our present dispensation angels are in the background. Even popular imagination, when, at the present day, it sees supernatural phenomena, never sees them in an angelic form.
World Not aeon, the time- world, nor cosmos, the frame- world, but oikomene, the inhabited world, or territory; and so the world more or less completely of human population and territory. Mat 24:14; Luk 2:1; Luk 4:5; Luk 21:26; Act 11:28; Act 17:6; Act 17:31; Act 19:27; Act 24:5; Rom 10:18; Rev 3:10; Rev 12:9; Rev 16:14.
World to come Buxtorf says: “By ‘world to come,’ some Jews understand the world which is to be after the destruction of this inferior world, and after the resurrection of dead men, when their souls will again be united with their bodies. Others, by ‘world to come,’ understand the days of the Messiah, in which, that is, the Messiah shall come, whom they still expect, and that he will reign temporally in this world.” In the New Testament, when speaking from a Christian standpoint, the world to come would signify the world beyond the judgment-day, as in Mat 12:32: but speaking from the Jewish standpoint, as here, the phrase signifies the days of the Messiah, the incoming period between the first and second advent. So in the Septuagint of Isa 9:6, Christ is called , the Father of the age or time-world to come, (English translation, “the everlasting Father.”) See notes on 1Co 10:11; Eph 1:10.
Whereof we speak Which is the subject of Heb 2:1-4.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For not to angels did he subject the world to come, of which we speak.’
For let them consider that it was not to angels that God gave authority over ‘the world to come’, it was to the Lord and to these witnesses who received His word, those through whom these signs and wonders were done. When God decided to act it involved His Son and those men who were chosen by Him and had responded to Him. The angels had no part to play in it.
The word for ‘world’ is oikoumene. This can signify the inhabited world, or one section of the world subjected to order and discipline, in contrast to another. Thus the Greeks used it of their own ‘ordered world’ in contrast with the world of Barbarians, and it was used of ‘ordered world’ of the Roman Empire in contrast with the world outside. In this case therefore ‘the world to come’ means ‘that world forecast as coming in the Scriptures, and now here, which is under the control of God’, in contrast with the world in general, and thus signifies the coming and arrival of the Kingly Rule of God in Jesus, in contrast to the world outside that Rule. It refers to that sphere of Kingly Rule which was under the sway of the King and His followers (Col 1:13), and subject to the law of Christ (1Co 9:24), in Jewish terminology, to the coming days of the Messiah and His Kingdom.
Thus the ‘world to come’ here indicates ‘the world’ known from Scripture ‘to be coming’, and which had now arrived in the coming of Jesus and the establishing of the ‘worldwide’ Christian community, the sphere of the Kingly Rule of God, and is to be seen as including all that follows from it. It represents the new stage of God’s purposes in its totality. The old ‘world’ was passing. The new had come.
It had arrived at ‘the end of these days’ (Heb 1:2), that is, ‘in the last days’ (Act 2:17), which are in Acts very closely connected with signs and wonders and gifts of the Spirit (Heb 2:4; Act 2:17-20). For this use of ‘to come’ compare Heb 6:5; Heb 9:11; Heb 10:1. In other words it is speaking of the Christian presence on earth in these final days before the end (the days from the first coming of Christ to the rapture, and then to the end of time) as new creatures in Christ, living ordered lives under the King, followed by their continual existence in glory. It is the result of the presence in the world of the Kingly Rule of God as proclaimed by Jesus and manifested in power. Such an ‘ordered world’ was not subjected to angels, it was subjected to the Son and His followers. And they had come manifesting that kingship with all the outward and inward signs of God’s presence and power. Thus those in it are without excuse if they drift away to the world outside.
This is in contrast with the world in general. In Deu 32:8 (LXX) we read,
‘When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
When he separated the children of men,
He set the bounds of the peoples,
According to the number of the angels of God.’
The idea is that once the nations were separated at Babel and languages became confused, angels took authority over the different sections into which the world of men was split. Man had lost his authority over creation. This is confirmed further in Dan 10:20, which speaks of angelic beings such as “the prince of Persia” and “the prince of Greece,” as having sway in those areas, and Dan 10:21; Dan 12:1 which speak of Michael as “the great prince” who champions the people of Israel. Man had lost his dominion through sin, and was swayed by heavenly powers, although God kept a special watch on His own.
The result was that the ‘present world’ (compare 2Ti 4:10; Gal 1:4) was seen as no longer under the sway of man but as under the sway of angelic forces, the majority of them seemingly evil. However, the ‘coming world’ (now come) is different. It is under the sway of the King and His disciples, and angels have no part in its rule. The kingdom of the Son of His love is in vivid contrast with the power of darkness (Col 1:13).
Others, however see ‘the world to come’ as indicating the afterlife when Christ will rule over all along with His own, and this is not to be excluded, but the idea is surely more immediate than that. For ‘the world to come’ is to be seen as that promised by the prophets, in contrast with ‘this present world’, the new world under the rule of the promised King, and is to be seen as beginning at Christ’s first coming with the advent of the Kingly Rule of God. Then there came a new world (oikoumene) within the world (kosmos). It covers the life and activity of God’s people under His Kingly Rule in this world, although it then moves on to embrace all God’s future purposes and plans for His people. In other words the ‘world to come’ is all embracing. It is the new God-ordered ‘world’ introduced in the coming of Christ. For that is central to the whole passage, that Jesus has come and established that new world for those who are His own.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Man’s Original Place of Dominion Over the Earth – The author of Hebrews moves from a genre of exhortation for us to cling to the Gospel message in Heb 2:1-4 to the genre of exposition in Heb 2:5-9 beginning with an Old Testament citation regarding man’s authority over this earth (Heb 2:5-9). [140] Therefore, we are compelled to ask, “What is the connection between these two passages of Scripture?” The answer to this question lies in the fact that the Gospel was designed to restore mankind back into his original place of dominion and authority over this earth through the Atonement and Exaltation of Jesus Christ (Heb 2:5-9), thus giving him authority over the devil and his kingdom. Man’s deliverance from the bondages of Satan will be stated in Heb 2:14-15; for in the next passage (Heb 2:10-18) the author explains how Jesus Christ has authored our salvation from bondage and restoration into a life of dominion.
[140] George Howard Guthrie, 1991, The Structure of Hebrews: A Textual-Linguistic Analysis, PhD Dissertation, Ann Arbor: ProQuest/UMI. (Publication No. 9213038), 99.
Illustration – Mankind has miserably failed in taking dominion over the earth, and he stands in desperate need of a Redeemer. Having travelled across the world with the privilege of preaching the Gospel in five nations, I have made a conclusion that if you could describe the world in one word, it would be the word “Suffering.” For example, in Uganda, East Africa where I serve as a missionary and live in a secured compound with razor wire, and work in a secured compound with razor wire, I have seen suffering and death that will break one’s heart. I want you to understand how far we have fallen from a position of dominion upon earth, to one of being dominated, as did the children of Israel move from seventy souls living under God’s grace to a multitude enslaved by Pharaoh in Egyptian bondage. God gave mankind a divine commission in Gen 1:28 be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Now, God did not tell mankind to fill the earth with unrighteousness. No! He is telling us to multiply and fill the earth with righteousness; this is the original purpose and indent of the creation of the earth; this was the original commission for mankind, to spread righteousness upon the earth. Now the great commission is in Mat 28:18-20, which we call the Great Commission, is to take the Gospel to the nations, which the author mentions in Heb 2:1-4. Actually, in this Gospel commission, God has reshaped and reformed the original commission to cater for human depravity. He originally told mankind to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth; and this is what the psalmist has made reference to. The psalmist has taken the Gospel message in Heb 2:1-4, then he has reached back into the book of Genesis, where God gave man the original commission to take dominion over the earth, and he joined the two at the hip, that is, at the fundamental thrust of each commission. The psalmist has resolved our dilemma of loss of dominion from his citation within Psalms 8, which gives us the plan of redemption. Watching human suffering as a missionary has shaped my world view to realize how far this world has fallen into bondage through sin; but, we have an answer, we have a solution.
Heb 2:5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
Heb 2:5
The aorist tense of tells us that God made a decision in the past not to give dominion of the earth to the angels, a decision that is unchangable. Instead, He gave this honor to mankind. Angels have been given the responsibilities of ministering to us (Heb 1:14). However, within the angelic realm, there are levels of authority over one another. For example, we know that archangels are set over less superior angels. Several Old Testament passages imply angelic dominion over regions of the earth (Dan 10:13; Dan 10:21; Dan 12:1).
Heb 1:14, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
Dan 10:13, “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.”
Dan 10:21, “But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.”
Also, the LXX version of Deu 32:8 reads, “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he established boundaries for the nations according to the number of the angels of God,” implying that the nations of the earth were placed under the dominion of angels. [141] If the Hebrew readers held theological views of angelic dominion on the earth, the author makes an effort to dispel this notion in relation to the Messianic Kingdom of Heaven by clearly stating their role as ministers of God and of the saints. Carl Moll adds the testimony of Sir 17:17, “For in the division of the nations of the whole earth he set a ruler over every people; but Israel is the Lord’s portion,” as well as rabbinic tradition. [142]
[141] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:5. Carl Moll adds the testimony of Sirach 17:17, “For in the division of the nations of the whole earth he set a ruler over every people; but Israel is the Lord’s portion,” as well as Tobit 12:15, the “Watchers” in the book of Daniel, and rabbinic tradition. See Carl Bernard Moll, The Epistle to the Hebrews, trans. A. C. Kendrick, in Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, ed. Philip Schaff (New York: Charles Scribner, and Co., 1868), 48.
[142] See Carl Bernard Moll, The Epistle to the Hebrews, trans. A. C. Kendrick, in Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, ed. Philip Schaff (New York: Charles Scribner, and Co., 1868), 48.
Heb 2:5 “the world to come” – Comments Worrell says in the Hebrew mind the phrase “the world to come” refers to the Messianic Age in which the Messiah would rule and reign on earth from Jerusalem. [143] In light of such Jewish theology, the author of Hebrews was compelled to offer an explanation for their present suffering in light of Jesus’ Exaltation. Because the phrase carries both spatial and temporal implications, scholars offer a variety of explanations as to its meaning. For example, does refer to earth or heaven, and does suggest this present age, or a future event.
[143] A. S. Worrell, The Worrell New Testament (Springfield, Missouri: Gospel Publishing House, c1904, 1980), notes on Hebrews 2:5.
(1) The Present Age Upon Earth – Some scholars believe refers to the present Church age inaugurated upon earth with Jesus’ First Coming. For example, John Chrysostom believes “the world to come” was the world in which Christ Jesus entered according to Heb 1:6, “when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world” ( Homilies on Hebrews 4), a world in which the New Testament Church dwells. [144] Also, Craig Koester, noting the use of similar phrases in the epistle of Hebrews: “the powers of the world to come” (Heb 6:4-6), “an high priest of good things to come” (Heb 9:11), and “a shadow of good things to come” (Heb 10:1), believes the phrase “world to come” refers not necessarily to the future, but to “the [earthly] world that the Son entered;” that is, something that is presently taking place. [145] For example, the author will again use this same phrase “the world to come” in Heb 6:5 when referring to the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which began on the day of Pentecost.
[144] John Chrysostom, St. Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of John and the Epistle to the Hebrews, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, vol. 14, ed. Philip Schaff (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1889), 382.
[145] Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, in The Anchor Bible, eds. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 213.
Heb 6:5, “And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come ,”
(2) A Future Age – Other scholars believe the phrase “the world to come” refers to a future event in which the Church hopes to partake. After citing the various uses of within the epistle of Hebrews, Paul Ellingworth summarizes its meaning as an implication of the “heavenly” realm, [146] arguing that the author of Hebrews was making a clear distinction between the present reality and the future world in which Jesus Christ would have total dominion. Ellingworth says “the world to come” is something believers can both speak about, and to some limited extent, they can experience. [147]
[146] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 146.
[147] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 146.
(3) The Heavenly Realm Some scholars place an emphasis upon the heavenly aspect of the phrase “the world to come. William Lane believes this phrase refers to “the new creation inaugurated by the Son’s enthronement,” which he describes as “the heavenly world of reality.” [148]
[148] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:5.
(4) A Progressive Event Perhaps the best way to resolve these dismembered list of explanations is to blend the spatial and temporal aspects of . For example, John Calvin defines it as “that which began at the beginning of Christ’s kingdom; but it will no doubt have its full accomplishment in our final redemption.” [149] David Allen merges these present and future aspects of “the world to come” as well by saying it began with Christ’s “enthronement” after His Resurrection, and consummates with His Second Coming. [150] Allen says it reflects a “continuum of time, a movement towards an intended goal.” [151] The four Gospels tell us that Kingdom of God was ushered in by Jesus Christ at His Coming, and it spread across the world through the preaching of the Gospel during the Church Age, with Jerusalem becoming the throne of Christ’s Kingdom as His Second Coming and Millennial reign, and the fullness of this Kingdom culminating in eternity after the Great White Throne Judgment. Thus, the Kingdom of God was ushered into the inhabited world in a movement of phases. The “world to come” seems to encompass a broad, general description that includes the Church age, the Millennial age, and eternity in the sense that it was first revealed to mankind with the coming of Jesus Christ; it is experienced to a limited degree by the Church after His Resurrection and Exaltation; and it will culminate in the future with Christ’s Second Coming and the Millennial Reign with His total dominion upon the earth. The phrase describes the creation moving towards its final redemption, with Jesus Christ being the first fruits of this new order.
[149] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews, trans. John Owen (Edinburgh, 1853), 58.
[150] David L. Allen, Hebrews, in The New American Commentary: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, vol. 35, ed. E. Ray Clendenen (Nashville, Tennessee: B & H Publishing Group, 2010), 203.
[151] David L. Allen, “Class Lecture,” Doctor of Ministry Seminar, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 25 July to 5 August 2011.
Heb 2:5 “whereof we speak” – Comments The first person plural “we” refers to the author speaking and the readers listening. Paul Ellingworth offers the paraphrase, “Of which we are in the course of speaking.” [152] In other words, the author began addressing the heavenly realm of Christ’s exaltation above the angels in the opening chapter of the epistle, and this doctrinal discourse elaborates upon the same theme. Westcott says the phrase refers to “the subject of the whole writing.” [153] In other words, the author refers to the theme of his epistle as the exaltation of Jesus Christ. The theme of the perseverance of believers by having a Great High Priest is the foundational theme of this epistle, which undergirds the theme of Jesus’ exaltation.
[152] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 146.
[153] Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1903), 42.
Heb 2:5 Comments The motif of the Son’s exaltation and dominion is first introduced in Heb 1:13, “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool,” (Psa 110:1) and it flows into the second discourse with the author’s exegesis of Psa 8:4-6. [154] Paul Ellingworth notes that the reader expects the author to offer a “contrasting phrase” to his statement, “For not angels.,” by saying, “But to” However, this answer is not explicitly stated until the end of this section, “for He partook not of angels, but of the seed of Abraham” (Heb 2:16). [155] Instead, the author develops the answer in his exegetes of Psa 8:4-6 by revealing how the earth has been subjected to Jesus through His atonement and exaltation.
[154] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:5.
[155] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 147.
God originally subjected the earth to mankind and gave him complete dominion over it (Gen 1:26-29). Because of the Fall, Satan subverted man’s position of dominion as he enslaved him in sin. In the ages to come, all things will be made subject to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. However, this is not the situation in this present age; for Heb 2:8 says, “But now we see not yet all things put under him.” That is, all things in this present world have not yet been made subject to Jesus Christ and the Church. The purpose of the proclamation of the Gospel is to establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth, and the purpose of the Kingdom of God is for Christ and the Church to rule in dominion upon the earth.
Heb 2:6-8 Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament Heb 2:6-8 gives us a quote from Psa 8:4-6.
Psa 8:4-6, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:”
Psalms 8 is considered by some scholars as “a hymn of praise,” and more particularly, as “a hymn of creation.” [156] This psalm shows that God created man as the pinnacle of His creation, and He thus gives to mankind His constant care. This psalm reveals God’s intimate aspect of divine oversight upon earth by sending His Son as our brother and the captain of our salvation (Heb 2:10-13), which is the greatest expression of God’s care for mankind. It is through heeding our heavenly calling that we will fulfill our original calling in the Creation Story. We may place this text beside Heb 1:1-4 and compare the heavenly glory of Jesus Christ as the Son of God to man’s intended glory in the Creation Story. Both passages are glorious, with that of the Son exceeding in glory.
[156] Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 19, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), notes on Psalms 8, Form/Structure/Setting.
Craig Koester notes that there is “little evidence” to suggest that the Jews viewed Psalms 8 as Messianic, [157] leading to the conclusion that the reference to Jesus Christ in this psalm was initially assigned by the early Church.
[157] Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, in The Anchor Bible, eds. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 215.
Although the Hebrew readers were probably familiar with the association of the “son of man” with Jesus Christ in the Gospel accounts, most scholars agree that the words (man) and (son of man) refer to mankind in general rather than prophetically and exclusively to Jesus Christ. [158] However, the author of Hebrews will expound upon this Old Testament passage in order to explain that God gave mankind, and not the angels, dominion upon the earth, and how Jesus Christ fulfilled this prophecy. Thus, the author intended a double application. Through the Atonement of Jesus, believers are now called to follow their Saviour in taking dominion upon the earth through the proclamation of the Gospel, with God confirming their words with signs and wonders. The angels do not partake of this ministry of reconciliation, since this ministry was delegated to the church. The church, in partaking of spiritual warfare, is literally involved in Jesus’ work to put all things in subjection under His feet.
[158] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 150.
Heb 2:6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Heb 2:6
[159] A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, (New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914), 1146.
The author of Hebrews refers to Old Testament passages a number of times in this epistle as “a certain place” (Heb 2:6; Heb 4:4) or “another place” (Heb 5:6) or “in this (place) again” (Heb 4:5). One reason is because there were no chapter or verse divisions during the first centuries of the Church, but was a later addition to the Holy Bible. Therefore, the author of Hebrews refers to these passages without a reference. The Holy Spirit inspired and quickened to the author this passage of Scripture, though the exact location may or may not have been known by the author. This happens to me often.
Even if the author recognized this passage as being in Psalms, he was not inspired by the Spirit to record its source, perhaps because the epistle of Hebrews emphasizes the Words of God spoken through His Son Jesus Christ above the words of the Old Testament prophets (Heb 1:1-2). William Lane says it is the authority of this quotation that is emphasized rather than its source. [160]
[160] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:6.
The Greek word (G1263) means, “testify, bear witness” ( BDAG) and is used nine times in the book of Acts of those who testify of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because this word immediately follows the exhortation of Heb 2:1-4, which lists witnesses of the Gospel such as Jesus Christ Himself, those who heard Him, God the Father, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it becomes clear that the Old Testament citation that follows serves as an additional witness to the proclamation of the Gospel; but more than a brief testimony, this testimony serves as an exposition of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ fits into God’s overall plan of redemptive for mankind. In other words, the author of Hebrews offers an additional testimony of God’s call to mankind through the Gospel, which is the Old Testament Scriptures.
Heb 2:6 “What is man, that thou art mindful of him” Comments – The meaning of being “mindful” is for someone to remember, to think about, to keep someone on his mind. God is not far off or an abstract being. He is personal and very much involved in human lives. Within the context of Psalms 8, God is not as mindful of man’s depravity as He is moved with pity and compassion for humanity as the pinnacle of His creation. He looks at mankind in the light of His original plan of dominion upon earth.
Heb 2:6 “or the son of man” – Comments – Gen 6:1-2 uses the phrase “sons of God” to imply celestial creatures. This passage of Scripture uses the phrase “son of man” as another way of describing mankind as an earthly creature.
Gen 6:1-2, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
Heb 2:6 “that thou visitest him” – Word Study on “visitest” Strong says the Greek word “visitest” ( ) (G1980) means, “to go see, relieve.” It carries the idea of a visitation as well as taking care of someone. Thus, modern English versions give various translations.
1. NASB, “concerned about,” NIV, RSV “to care for.”
2. BDAG – “visit in bringing salvation,” as in Luk 1:68.
Luk 1:68, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,”
This same Greek word is used in Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
The Hebrew word ( ) (H6485) used in Psa 8:5 means, “to visit, oversee” ( Strong), and includes the meaning, “to look after” ( Gesenius).
Psa 8:4, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
Heb 2:6 Comments – God is mindful about mankind, and cares for him through divine providence and divine provision. God is concerned about man’s daily lives. Many religions of the world have abstract concepts of their gods or their higher power, who are not represented in such a loving, personal way as is our Lord and Savior. God the Father is watching over mankind to work His plan of redemption in their behalf.
The pronoun “him” is generally understood as a reference to mankind in general, and not to the man Jesus Christ. Jesus is not referred to again until Heb 2:9. However, this passage says that Jesus, as a man, did go before us so that He could bring us to a position of glory that is referred to in Psa 8:4-6. Therefore, Jesus is inclusive in the pronoun “him.” Jesus had to partake of flesh and blood and become a man in order to fulfilled this Old Testament prophecy. In His public ministry, people marveled that God had given such power unto a man, the man Jesus Christ (Mat 9:8).
Mat 9:8, “But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.”
Heb 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
Heb 2:7
Word Study on “angels” – The Hebrew word used for “angels” in Psa 8:5 is ( ) (H430), which is the same word that is normally translated “God” throughout the entire Old Testament. For this reason, some modern English translations use the word “God”:
ASV, “For thou hast made him but little lower than God , And crownest him with glory and honor.”
HNV, “For you have made him a little lower than God , And crowned him with glory and honor.”
YLT, “And causest him to lack a little of Godhead , And with honour and majesty compassest him.”
However, the LXX translates the Hebrew word ( ) (H430) used in Psa 8:5 into the Greek word (G32) (angels).
LXX, “ , ,” (Psa 8:5)
Other English translations follow the KJV and the LXX by using the word “angels”:
Webster, “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels , and hast crowned him with glory and honor.”
DRC, “Thou hast made him a little less than the angels , thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:”
Still others take a middle ground, by using the word “gods”:
BBE, “For you have made him only a little lower than the gods , crowning him with glory and honour.”
Comments If we understand the phrase “a little lower” as a reference to rank, Heb 2:7 says that mankind was made a little lower than the angels in the sense that the angels dwell in God’s presence while man was made to dwell upon the earth. If we understand the phrase as a temporal reference, Heb 2:7 primarily refers to the incarnation of Christ Jesus prior to His Resurrection and Exaltation. Paul Ellingworth notes that the temporal use is the more popular view and it fits better with other temporal references in the passage (such as in Heb 2:8) and strengthens the view of a temporal reference. [161] However, the temporal reference does not fit well with mankind, whose earthly status remains unchanged through the ages.
[161] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 154.
Heb 2:7 “thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands” – What is this glory that Jesus will bring us into? It is for man to be restored to his place of dominion over God’s creation.
Heb 2:10, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory , to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Heb 2:8 Thou hast 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. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
Heb 2:8
[162] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 152.
Psa 8:7-8, “All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”
Heb 2:8 “For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.” – Comments – The first emphatic point is “all.” God has put all things under man’s feet. The second emphatic word is “not yet.” Even though God’s Word says all things are put under man’s feet, all events are not yet fulfilled so that all things are put under man’s feet. Why? Man sinned in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, Satan holds many people in bondage until that glorious day of liberty.
Now in this earthly life we see mankind in bondage to the fear of death (verse 15), so that all things are not yet put under his feet. Paul tells us that the last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1Co 15:20-26). We as believers no longer fear death, so that it is has no power over us. However, we are constantly reminded of our mortality each day as we visit the sick and care for those who are weak and in need. Yet, we do not sorrow as the world sorrows, who has no hope (1Th 4:13). In heaven we will see all things put under our feet as we rule and reign with Christ Jesus for eternity (2Ti 2:12). Now we have to see by faith, because of our mortality, so verse 9 begins, “but we see Jesus.” Through Jesus all things are placed under our feet except death, or mortality. Therefore, because of Him, we have been brought to glory, seated with Him in the heavenlies (Eph 2:6). Note other verses on looking to Jesus:
Heb 3:1, “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus ;”
Heb 12:2, “ Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Heb 2:8 Comments In Heb 2:8 b-c the author has completed his Old Testament citation of Psa 8:5-7, and he immediately focuses upon the phrase “all things” within this citation. This serves as a queue to let us know that he will build his initial argument upon this phrase. He will tell us that since all things have not yet been submitted to mankind, we must look to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of this prophecy.
Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Heb 2:9
[163] Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, in The Anchor Bible, eds. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 216.
[164] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 152-153.
William Lane notes that the name is first used in Heb 2:9, and is positioned at the end of a participial phrase for emphasis, “the made a little lower than the angels Jesus…,” while the other seven uses of His Name in this Epistle are placed for emphasis as well (Heb 2:9; Heb 3:1; Heb 6:20; Heb 7:22; Heb 10:19; Heb 12:2; Heb 12:24; Heb 13:20). [165]
[165] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:8b-9.
“who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” Word Study on “for” The Greek preposition is translated “because of” ( NASB, RSV, NIV), and “for” ( KJV).
Comments The phrase “made a little lower than the angels” echoes Christ’s Incarnation as He was sent from Heaven down to earth to partake of flesh and blood. William Lane notes that the phrase is moved to the front of the verse in Heb 2:9 for emphasis, being found in the center of Heb 2:7 in its first use. This emphasis can be seen when placing these two verses side by side, “having been made for a little while lower than the angels (Heb 2:7)a little lower than angels having been made(Heb 2:9)” He notes the purpose of this word arrangement was to stress Christ’s suffering in order to achieve redemption for mankind. [166]
[166] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:8b-9.
The phrase “for the suffering of death” reflects Jesus’ Passion. Much of the content of the four Gospels deals with Christ’s suffering and glory:
Matthew – 3 out of 28 chapters or 1/9th
Mark – 3 out of 16 chapters or 1/5th
Luke 3 out of 24 chapters or 1/8th
John – 1 out of 21chapters or 1/5th
Jesus knew why He must suffer:
Luk 24:25-26, “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?”
Luk 24:46, “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:”
Php 2:8-9, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:”
The excruciating physical pain and the mental anguish Jesus suffered on Calvary is difficult for us to comprehend. God poured forth His full wrath and judgment upon His Son, so that His anger is now appeased. He is no longer angry at us.
When Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, He did not shed His deity; rather, He poured it forth into a physical body. He then walked upon this earth that He Himself had created, where every blade of grass bowed to His command, where the fig tree withered at His curse, where the storm ceased at His command. He chose to partake of physical death, although He was eternal and could not die. He could have beckoned from the Cross, and ten thousand angels would have rushed from Heaven down to earth and rescued Him. Instead, every angel in Heaven watched and beheld, breathless, as God Incarnate allowed Himself to suffer and die on the Cross. These mighty angels must have turned and looked towards the throne of God, anticipating the Father’s command to release them to rescue His Son; instead, they saw God pour the fulness of His wrath upon His Only Son on Calvary. How can this be? None other was qualified to redeem you and me; for sin is too sinful to escape God’s wrath. The perfect sacrifice had to be made like you and me. So Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for whom all things were made, and through him all things were made, brought the fulness of His divine nature with Him into the Incarnation.
We are to have this same mind towards suffering that Jesus had (Php 2:5). We must also overcome and endure:
Zec 13:9, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”
Rom 8:16-18, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
2Co 4:17-18
Php 1:29, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;”
Php 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:”
Php 3:8-11
1Pe 1:6-7, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”
1Pe 2:21, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps”
Heb 2:9 “crowned with glory and honor” Comments The phrase “crowned with glory and honor” reflects Jesus’ Exaltation at the right hand of the throne of God, and may allude to the priestly garment of Aaron in Exo 28:2, “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.” [167] Jesus is now at the right hand of Father and He is crowned with glory and honor. The crown was the symbol of one’s exaltation to a royal office, as a king, or the recognition of one’s accomplishment, as with an athlete. [168]
[167] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:8b-9.
[168] Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, in The Anchor Bible, eds. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 217.
The epistle of Hebrews carries the motif of glorification following suffering for the believer as well. Believers, being in Christ, partake in this glory and honor (Eph 2:6, Joh 17:22). Thus, Heb 2:10 says, “in bringing many sons unto glory” which is taking place now. Also, Heb 2:7 says, “Thou crownedst him with glory and honor,” which is fulfilled in Christ Jesus (Joh 17:22, Eph 2:6). However, believers must endure suffering as Christ endured.
Joh 17:22, “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:”
Eph 2:6, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
Also, we know that we must give to Jesus and to the Father all glory and praise and honor.
Joh 17:24, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory , which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
Heb 2:9 “that he by the grace of God” – Comments The full measure of God’s grace that He extended towards mankind in offering His Only Begotten Son (Joh 3:16) on Calvary is immeasurable, unfathomable, beyond human comprehension. This divine grace was undergirded by His love for you and me, for God is love (1Jn 4:8).
Joh 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1Jn 4:8, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
His grace was not poured out because we deserved salvation or loved God, but because He first loved us. So, God gave us Jesus.
Rom 5:6-8, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Yet, there are men and women all around us who have squandered the grace of God in their lifetimes, counting it worthless, trading it in for temporary pleasures of this world, as did Esau for one morsel of bread. As Charles Spurgeon notes, how do you define your election, but by the grace of God; and how do you testify to others about your salvation experience, but to tell of the grace of God; and how do you put into words your sanctification, but by God’s grace. [169] When we have lived one trillion years in eternity, we will still marvel at the grace of God working in our lives.
[169] Charles Spurgeon, “The Captain of Our Salvation,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 45, in The Ages Digital Library (Albany, Oregon: AGES Software, 1998), 260.
Heb 2:9 “should taste death for every man” – Comments William Lane says the metaphor “to taste death” is Semitic in origin, and although absent from the Old Testament, it is found in earlier rabbinic writings. [170]
[170] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:8b-9.
The phrase “every (man)” describes all of mankind, as he is mentioned in the previous verse, which is a citation from Psa 8:5-7. In other words, Jesus died for all of humanity, which means His atonement is unlimited and available for all. Every human being must taste death, for it has been appointed unto all men to die once (Heb 9:27). Jesus’ death is unique in its effect of making an atonement for the sins of all of mankind. The author of Hebrews will discuss at length the all-inclusive and eternal aspects of Christ’s atonement later in this epistle (see Heb 6:1 to Heb 10:18).
Heb 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
Craig Koester notes that several of the Church fathers (Ambrose, Theodoret, Theophylact) interpreted the phrase as a reference to all of creation, rather than for mankind exclusively. [171] This view reflects Rom 8:21, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” The redemption of mankind will certainly be followed by the restoration of the natural order of creation, but this interpretation does not fit the context as easily as restricting it to mankind.
[171] Craig R. Koester, Hebrews, in The Anchor Bible, eds. William Foxwell Albright and David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 218.
Scripture Reference – Note:
1Jn 2:2, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world .”
Heb 2:9 Comments Because we do not yet see all things put under our feet (verse 8), we need a deliverer, Jesus. He tasted death for us, a phrase that describes the undeserved bitterness of Jesus’ death and placed within the same clause as “the grace of God”; for it was only God’s grace that could offer the Son of God as a sacrificial lamb to atone for depraved humanity.
The one thing holding man in bondage is death (1Co 15:54-57), so that it was necessary that Christ Jesus taste death in order to deliver us from all bondages of morality. Paul Ellingworth notes that the two perfect participles in used Heb 2:9 ( , ), while describing contrasting ideas of suffering and exaltation, allow Jesus’ Passion and Exaltation to be understood “as two complimentary aspects of a single work.” [172] Both were necessary in order to secure man’s redemption.
[172] Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, eds. I. Howard Marshall and W. Ward Gasque (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 153-154.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
First Doctrinal Discourse: Applying God’s Original Commission to Take Dominion on Earth to the Christian Faith – Heb 2:5 to Heb 4:11 offers a doctrinal discourse discussing man’s heavenly calling that follows the first exhortation of Heb 2:1-4 for us to heed the Gospel message. The author begins his discourse with a citation from Psa 8:4-6, which reflects God’s original calling in Gen 1:28 to take dominion over the earth, as God commissioned Adam to do in the Creation Story (Heb 2:5-9). Thus, the author explains to his Hebrew readers that the Gospel call is not a new call, but a call originally given to the Jews in the Old Testament. While man has generally failed in this calling, Jesus Christ came to earth in the Incarnation and fulfilled this divine calling. William Lane correctly said, “Jesus in a representative sense fulfilled the vocation intended for mankind.” [139] It is through heeding our heavenly calling that we will fulfill our original calling in the Creation Story. In order for Jesus to become our Apostle and High Priest, the Son of God (Heb 1:1-14) had to fulfill this original calling by becoming the Son of Man, made like His brethren, taking dominion over the earth (Heb 2:10-18). It became necessary for Jesus as the Son of God to partake of flesh and blood through His Incarnation and become our Apostle in order to deliver us from the bondage of Satan through His Atonement and Resurrection and become our Great High Priest by His Exaltation so that He could lead mankind in fulfillment of this divine commission through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He now becomes the Apostle and High Priest of our salvation, a role the author compares to Moses as he led the children of Israel in the wilderness (Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11).
[139] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 47a, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), comments on Hebrews 2:5.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Man’s Original Place of Dominion Over the Earth Heb 2:5-9
2. Jesus is the Author of our Salvation Heb 2:10-18
3. Jesus is Apostle and High Priest of Heavenly Calling Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:11
a) Jesus & Moses as Servants of God Heb 3:1-6
b) The Wilderness Journey & the Christian Faith Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:11
Man is Crowned with Glory and Honor – While the epistle of Hebrews opens with a description of how God crowned Jesus Christ, His Son, with glory and honor (Heb 1:1-4; Heb 2:9), the author will also discuss how God created man and crowned him with glory and honor and gave him dominion over the earth (Heb 2:5-8). Jesus Christ came to restore mankind to his rightful place of dominion. He has become the Author of our salvation and restoration to dominion upon the earth (Heb 2:9-18). This explains why man’s depravity is so worthy of eternal damnation, since he carries the image of God in himself.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A further argument for the superiority of Christ’s word:
v. 5. For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
v. 6. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him?
v. 7. Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst Him with glory and honor, and didst set Him over the works of thy hands;
v. 8. Thou hast 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. But now we see not yet all things put under Him.
v. 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, should taste death for every man. In addition to the first proof for the superiority of Christ and of His Gospel the inspired writer now brings another reason: For not to the angels did He subject the world to come, concerning which we speak. This is the proof positive for the sovereignty of the Son, the fact that the government and the administration of the world to come, of the Kingdom of Glory, is ascribed to Him. For God did not place this wonderful kingdom into the control of the angels; there is not a single passage in Scriptures nor any other evidence to that effect.
What we must believe with regard to the Kingdom of Grace and Glory and its government is plainly shown in the passage which the sacred writer quotes, Psa 8:4-6, as the testimony of one, namely, David the prophet, concerning the facts here discussed by him: What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him? For a little while Thou hast made Him lower than the angels: with glory and honor hast Thou crowned Him and didst set Him over the works of Thy hands; Thou didst put all things in subjection under His feet. The author here clearly states that Psa 8:1-9 is a Messianic psalm, and that these words are spoken of Jesus Christ. See 1Co 15:27; Eph 1:22. God truly was mindful of this Son of Man in a most extraordinary manner, for the good of all mankind: He visited Him in a way which resulted in the salvation of all men. It is true indeed that Christ, in His state of humiliation, was for a little while inferior to the angels, just as He had no form or comeliness among men, Isa 53:2. But when the work of redemption was completed, God crowned the formerly despised Jesus with divine honor and glory; He exalted Him, according to His human nature, to the full possession and enjoyment of all the divine attributes and powers, giving Him unlimited authority over all the works of creation, over all created beings. The entire universe, with all that it contains, is lying in subjection under His feet.
The writer now draws a conclusion from this Scripture-passage: For in this, that He put all things in subjection under Him, He left nothing that was not subjected under Him. It follows, of course, that even the angels are subject to Christ, that they can in no way compare with Him in power and authority. Eph 1:21-22; Col 2:10. It is true, indeed: But now we do not see yet that all things are subjected to Him, 1Co 15:24-27; the revelation of the fullness of Christ’s divine power, just as He told the Jews in the court of Caiaphas, is a thing of the future: it will appear before the eyes of all men on the last day. In the meantime, however, our faith has a certain basis: Him who, for a little while, was lower than the angels we see, Jesus, on account of His suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for every man. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in His state of humiliation, took upon Himself the sufferings of mankind and finally laid down His life in death. In this way the grace of God was revealed to mankind, since it was in behalf of every single human being and for the sake of earning a complete salvation for all men that Christ tasted the bitterness of death, Rom 5:8; Gal 2:21. This perfect obedience of the Redeemer has now been recognized and rewarded by the award of divine and everlasting glory and honor, Php_2:6-11 ; Eph 1:20-23; Mat 28:18. It is equally certain that it will finally be shown that God put everything in subjection under His feet. If we wish to leave the order of the clauses in the sentence unchanged and think of the revelation of divine glory that came to Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, the explanation is almost equally simple: “He was made a little lower than the angels that He might suffer death; but He was crowned with glory and honor that this very death might bring all men to the glory of supremacy which was theirs when the fear of death was removed.”
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Heb 2:5. For unto the angels “Angels, as I told you, are only ministering spirits; and though the law was given by them, yet in the present dispensation they have nothing to do in dispensing the gospel: for it is the Son of God, the Lord of all things, to whom is reserved the sole dominion over, and direction of the present dispensation; and who is the giver of that salvation of which we speak, and not angels, to whom we are not subjected.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Heb 2:5 . The author has brought into relief the fact, Heb 2:3 , that it was the Son of God, or the Lord, according to chap. 1, highly exalted above the angels, by whom the Messianic salvation was proclaimed, and from whose immediate disciples it was handed down to Christendom. He now justifies this order of things as founded in a higher divine decree, and already foretold in the Scriptures of the Old Covenant. That order of things is, however, justified, in conformity to the comparison of Christ with the angels, which is begun with Heb 1:4 , first, e contrario or negatively, Heb 2:5 , and then, Heb 2:6 , positively. The emphasis lies in Heb 2:5 upon , and this then finds its antithesis in and , Heb 2:6 . For when the author first in an absolute form of expression says: For not unto the angels has He put into subjection the world to come, and then continues: But one in a certain place testifies, etc., the sense on account of the close connectedness of Heb 2:6 (see on that verse) with Heb 2:5 is certainly this: for, according to the testimony of Scripture , the world to come is put in subjection, not to angels, but to Christ, the Son of man.
] without article. For it stands generically: beings who are angels, who have the nature of angels (Bleek). [Owen: nature angelical.] De Wette supposes the reason for the anarthrous form to be in the possibility that only a part of the angels are to be thought of. Unsuitably, because in connection with already the definite antithesis: “but to the Son of man,” was present to the mind of the author (comp. Heb 2:6 ).
] sc . , which naturally follows from the of Heb 2:4 . The verb expresses the notion of making dependent, or of the placing in a position of subjection, and is chosen because the same expression is employed in the citation presently to be adduced (comp. Heb 2:8 ).
] the world to come . This mode of designating it is explained from the well-known Biblical phraseology, according to which the Messianic period was distinguished as the , from the pre-Messianic as the . [43] What is meant, consequently, is not something purely future (Theodoret: ; Oecumenius: ; Schulz: the new order of the world which is approaching; Bleek II. the blessings of the kingdom of God which will first be manifested and conferred upon believers at the return of the Lord in glory; Grotius, Maier, and others: heaven, as the future dwelling-place of the Christians also), but the new order of things in the Messianic kingdom, which in its first manifestations has already appeared, but as regards its completion is still a future one . Calvin: apparet non vocari orbem futurum dumtaxat, qualem e resurrectione speramus, sed qui coepit ab exordio regni Christi, complementum vero suum habebit in ultima redemptione. is itself without emphasis; on the contrary, only resumes under another form the of Heb 2:3 . It results from this, that the opinion according to which the tacit contrast is to be supplied in thought to the declaration, Heb 2:5 : “the present world is indeed” to be regarded as “subjected to the angels, by them swayed and governed” (Cameron, Bleek, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebrerbr . p. 656, al .), is a baseless one. For it must then have been written .
] does not go back to Heb 1:6 (Theophylact, Zeger, Grotius, Schlichting, Schulz, Bhme; comp. also Delitzsch), against which the present , in place of which a preterite must have been expected, and not less the addition to , is decisive, nor is put in place of a future: “de quo in sequenti testimonio loquemur” (Vatablus); but the relative clause is to be taken quite generally: which is the subject of our discourse (our epistle). Too specially Kurtz: “of which we are speaking just now, in this section of our epistle,” which would have called for the addition of a . The plural , moreover, has reference merely to the writer. Comp. Heb 5:11 , Heb 6:9 ; Heb 6:11 , Heb 13:18 . Without good reason does Bengel supplement nos doctores ; while even, according to Hofmann, “all who believe the promise, the apostle and his readers,” are the subject of , inasmuch as it is only a question of an “additional explanatory clause, when the apostle adds that that world to come is intended, of which the Christians speak!”
[43] We have not to seek the origin of the addition in the fact that at the time of the Psalmist (ver. 6), that which was promised belonged as yet to the purely future (so, along with the right explanation this likewise in Bleek I.).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Heb 2:5-18 . Further investigation of the relation of Christ to the angels, and demonstration of the necessity for the death of Christ. Not to angels, but to Christ, the Son of man, has, according to the testimony of Scripture, the Messianic world been subjected. Certainly Christ was abased for a short time lower than the angels; but so it must be, in order that mankind might obtain salvation; He must suffer and die, and become in all things like unto men, His brethren, in order to be able as High Priest to reconcile them to God.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
IV
The exaltation of Jesus above the Angels, is not disparaged by His earthly life, which rather effects the elevation of humanity
Heb 2:5-13.
5For unto the angels hath he not [For not unto the angels did he] put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak [are speaking]. 6But one in a certain place testified, saying, What Isaiah 2 [a] man, that thou art mindful of him? or the [a] son of man, that thou visitest him? 7Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands 8 [om. and didst set him over the works of thy hands]Hebrews 3 : Thou hast [didst] 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 [in subjection] under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels [but him who has for some little been made lower than the angels, Jesus, we see] for the [on account of his] suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God4 should [might] taste death for every man. 10For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing [as one who brought] many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of [from] one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church [congregation] will I sing praise unto thee. 13And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me [that God gave to me].
[Heb 2:5. , for not unto angels=it is not to angels that he subjected, etc. without the Art., as marking not the individuals, but the class, and emphatic in its position., he subjected, Aor.; not, hath subjected. . There are three words commonly rendered, world: 1. properly the world as a harmoniously adjusted and orderly system of things; this is never used in the phrase, the world to come; 2. , age, duration of time, and hence the world as constituting a particular period of time, or age; so commonly , this age, this world, and , the coming or future age or world; 3. (), the world as a locality and as inhabited; the world in a more concrete character than is expressed by .
Heb 2:6. . De Wette, Del., Alf. render as= , man, collectively, as Eng. Ver.: Moll and Ln. a man, individually, which accords better with the absence of the article.
Heb 2:7. , some little, in the Hebr. text, and in the citation, Heb 2:7, in relation to man, is a paululum of degree; in its application by the author to Jesus, Heb 2:9, it becomes a paululum of time, Del., contrasting his temporary humiliation with his permanent exaltation.
Heb 2:9. , on account of his suffering of death, referring forward to , crowned. The Eng. ver. for the suffering, etc., suggests an erroneous reference, or is at least ambiguous.For the general construction of Heb 2:9 see exegetical notes.K.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Heb 2:5. For not unto angels did He put in subjection the coming world of which we are speaking.The refers not back to Heb 1:13 (de W.), nor in form to the preceding exhortation, while, in fact, introducing an entirely new thought, parallel to the preceding, viz., that in the Son humanity is exalted above the angels (Ebr.). Nor does it introduce the ground on which the author has assigned to the revelation made through the Son a so much loftier position (Thol.), but rather the ground for the earnest exhortation to personal devotion to the system of salvation revealed through the Son. Jewish conceptions assigned to the angels a share, not merely in the giving of the Law, but also in the government of the world, and especially in influencing the events of history. It is uncertain whether Psalms 82 has such a reference; but the LXX., in rendering the obscure words, Deu 32:8 (that God, when He fixed the heritage of the nations and separated the children of men from one another, fixed the limits of the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel), makes the division to take place according to the number of the angels of God. In the following verse it is then said that the people of Israel are the portion of Jehovah Himself. The same idea is found, Sir 17:17, and with many Rabbins, who, on the ground of the list of nations, Genesis 10., assume for the seventy nations seventy angelic heads and rulers, while Israel, excepted from the number, is the special and privileged people of the Supreme God. At Dan 10:13; Dan 10:20; Dan. 21:12, however, we find the representation that the Jews also have such an angelic prince, who takes in charge this people as against the guardian angels at other nations; and at Tob 12:15, the seven archangels are regarded as the angelic protectors of the covenant people; and at Dan 4:14, the fate announced to Nebuchadnezzar is indicated as the decision of the Watchers, and the decree of the Holy Ones. From these passages is explained the mode of expression here employed, in regard to which we may also recollect that the LXX. render the designation of the Messiah, Isa 9:6, (), according to the Cod. Alex, by , Father of the coming age. For it is not a mere absolute futurity which is meant (Theodoret, c, Grot., Schulz), but the Messianic world (Calv.). And the order of the words, too, shows that the contrast is not between the future and the preceding world (Camero, Bl.), but, as indicated also by the absence of the Art. with ., between angelic existences and man, to which latter class the Messianic King sustains a relation entirely unlike that which he bears to the former.
Heb 2:6. But some one testified in a certain place.Here is not the commencement of a new section (Heinr.), but the adversative subjoins a contrast to the idea referred to and denied in the preceding clause, and over against that idea presents in a contrast indicated by its Scriptural citation, the real nature of the case. The indefiniteness of the form of citation (, somewhere), occurring also with Philo, (Carpz.), and with many Rabbins (Schttg.), implies not that, as against the inscription which refers the Psalm to David, the author would ascribe it to some unknown person (Grot.), which would imply a critical habit not at this time existing; nor that, quoting from memory, he did not know the precise locality of the passage (Koppe, Schulz),a supposition negatived partly by the verbal exactness of the citation, partly by the like mode of citing a passage entirely familiar, Heb 4:4 (Ln.); nor that, regarding God or the Holy Spirit as the proper Author of the passage, he was indifferent to its human writer (Bl.), in which case would hardly have been employed; but is probably a usage purely rhetorical (so the majority after Chrys.). For that God Himself is addressed in this well known passage (Ebr.) is a matter on which no stress need be laid, since the author either might have made the Scripture the subject, or employed a passive construction.
What is a manall things under his feet.The connection of the words in Psa 8:5-7 shows that man, as , in contrast with heaven and the shining stars which God has ordained, is conceived immediately in his frailty and earthly lowliness, and it is purely arbitrary to introduce here,whether into the original text, or the conception of our author (Kuin., Heinr., Bhm., Bl., Stein, Ln.),the idea of the glory and dignity of man. We find rather the preceding words of the Psalm expressing the idea that God is not stumbled, so to speak, by this natural inferiority of man, but displays His own glory in selecting from such an humble sphere His instruments of victory for the confusion of His enemies. After reminding us, Heb 2:2, that God, whose majesty is extolled above the heavens, has also a mighty name upon the earth, the Psalmist declares in Heb 2:3 that out of the mouth of children and sucklings He has prepared to Himself a power against His adversaries, to subdue the enemy, the seeker of vengeance. On this follows (Heb 2:4) the wondering gaze at the heavens, the work of the fingers of God, and then, Heb 2:5, the contrasted reference to the twofold nature of man, appearing, on the one hand, frail and impotent, as a mortal dweller on the earth, as a creature of dust, and, on the other, not merely an object of loving care, but an instrument, preferred before all creatures, for the execution of the will of God. The subsequent delineations of the Psalm show that the reference is to that position of sovereignty which, according to the account of creation, man has received by virtue of his possession of the Divine image. Precisely for this reason it is added: Thou hast made him to fall short but little of Deity. Elohim without the Art. expresses abstractly the Divine in its super-terrestrial character,nay, 1Sa 28:13; Zech. 12:19, the super-terrestrial in general, such as appertains to spirits. The Psalmist thus says, not that man is made almost equal to Jehovah, but that he has received almost a supra-terrestrial nature and position. Hence the LXX. in place of Elohim put . But the words of the text do not justify Calov, Vitr., Stier, Ebr., in taking not merely the of the Sept., but even the Heb. , not, of degree, but, of time, in the sense, Thou hast for a season let him fall short of Elohim, i.e, of the intercourse and presence of the world-ruling Deity in His glory, which the angels, as inhabitants of heaven, always enjoy. Equally unwarranted is the assumption that this glory of man is a glory as yet merely promised by God, and that the hope of the Psalmist looks to its speedy realization. For the falling short or lacking is not transferred back to the past, nor the crowning carried forward to the future; but the two are represented as contemporaneous, and the description refers to man, not after the Fall, but in his primitive and normal condition. Precisely for these reasons can the words be applied to the Messiah, and the application made by our author, Heb 2:9, is facilitated by the expression, Son of Man. But it finds in this expression, neither its occasion nor its substantial reason, and the nature of the argument rather requires us here to regard the author as applying the parallel terms, man and Son of man, to mankind in general (Bez., Storr, Ebr., Del.), than to assume in the original a direct reference of these words to Christ (Bl., Ln.), and thus interpolate here the quite differently applied train of thought which is found at 1Co 15:25 ff.5
Heb 2:8. For in subjecting to him all things he has left nothing.The author proceeds to draw from the words of the Psalmist a conclusion which introduces the proof of the position laid down in Heb 2:5. The subject of the verb is not the Psalmist, but God (Heb 3:15; Heb 8:13), and refers not to the Son of man, either as appealing in Christ as a historical person (Calv., Gerh., Calov, Seb. Schmidt, Ln., etc.), or simply as ideally conceived, but to man as such, as immediate object of Psalms 8 (Bez., Grot., Schlicht, Ebr., Del.). But neither is it his purpose to make good and justify the declaration of the Psalmist (Hofm.). This rests on the statement of Gen 1:28. It is rather to justify the declaration of the author that God has not subjected to angels the future world of which we speak. This is done by an appeal to the infallible word of Scripture that God has subjected every thing to man: this declaration admits no exception. It cannot be objected to the legitimacy of this conclusion, that the Psalmist is speaking of the present, and our author of the future world, and that he is thus unwarranted in including the . . in the category of the all things. With partial correctness, Del. remarks, after Hofm.: The world, as collective aggregate of what is created, coincides with the generic term, all things, and the present and future world are not two different things, comprehended under the , but they are the the all things themselves, only in two distinct and successive forms. Still I would rather lay the emphasis on the fact that in . . denotes the Messianic world as that in which alone the Divine destination of man to dominion over all things can have its accomplishment. By this, attention is at once directed partly to the present position of the human race, not yet corresponding with its destiny, and partly to that fulfilment of the Divine declaration which, through Jesus the Messianic King, has been already commenced, and is pledged to an absolute completion.
But now we see not as yet all things subjected to him.The is not logical,=but as the case stands, in fact, but directs our eyes to the earthly present, which shows the universe as yet not in a condition answering to its destination. By this the certain fulfilment of the divine declaration, is indeed held out in prospect for a more perfect future. But this aspect of the subject the author is not now unfolding. To assume (with Ln), a contrast between that which we now see and that which we shall yet see, disturbs the connection, and is inconsistent with the following verse. The purpose of the author is to prove that the future or Messianic worldthe world of redemptionthat world which forms the proper subject of communication between him and his readersis as far as the original world, which began with creation, from being subjected to angelic beings. Hence he institutes a double contrast of that which we now do not see: primarily a contrast with the declaration immediately preceding [viz. the inferential statement that God subjecting to man all things, has left nothing unsubjected to him]; and, secondly, a contrast with that which we now already see [viz., Jesus glorified in advance, and for the sake of, humanity.] Even the in our passage should have awakened a suspicion against the common assumption that we have here an objection to the declaration of the Psalm, or a limitation of our authors previous position inferentially derived from it. [ has here, with nearly all interpreters, the temporal signification. While entirely coinciding with the authors general exposition, which cites the passage from the Psalm in its primary literal acceptation, and then draws out from it, by legitimate reasoning, its proper Messianic application, I yet incline strongly to the logical explanation of . The closing clause of Heb 2:8 : For in subjecting to Him all things, etc., is purely logical. It seems more natural that the next should commence with a logical particle, and it is precisely because the author (as Moll maintains above) is not yet contrasting the present with the future; but an actual condition with an ideal condition, that I prefer to take in the purely logical sense, which is not inconsistent with the not yet, (or possibly not at all) of the . I would thus render, But as it is, in no way, or, But as it is, not yet do we see, etc. Still, if we forbear to press the , its temporal acceptation harmonizes nearly as well with the reasoning as the logical. I wish to add that the passage, rightly expounded, is a beautiful specimen of the authors skilful and profound manner of dealing with Scripture; or, perhaps we should rather say, it is a striking example of a commentary by the Spirit of inspiration on a passage which the Spirit had indited.K.].
Heb 2:9. But him who has been for a little humbled below the angels, Jesus, we beholdhonor. The position and import of the word Jesus, standing in close connection with the finite verb , and between the two Perf. Part. . and ., of which the former has the Art. the latter not, present to us the historical Saviour as the person in whom the language of the Psalm has its fulfilment. The object is not a direct contrast between as yet unexalted humanity, and the already exalted Jesus, nor between the humiliation and exaltation of the Messiah; but simply this, to declare that that Jesus who was once, for a little, humbled below the angels, is well known as a person crowned on account of His suffering of death with glory and honor, and that to Him must be referred the words of the Psalm, because also now, i.e, in the period of redemption and the time of the Messiah, these infallible words of the Psalm can apply to no other man and Son of man than Jesus. While Hofmann formerly (Weiss. II. 28) regarded . as predicate, I as obj. and . as its apposition, he now more correctly regards (Schriftb. I. 187) . as object., . as in apposition with it, and . as predicate. This construction is, on grammatical grounds, preferable to that adopted by Ebr. and Del., which makes . the proper object of ., and . its apposition, placed before it on purely rhetorical grounds.6 True, Ln. goes too far in maintaining that . is wholly unemphatic, and could even be dispensed with. But the emphasis lies certainly on the predicates formed from the words of the Psalm, which describe the two contrasted conditions of the Lord, and hence inclose as it were between them the historical name of His person. The subjection of the world under man we as yet see not; but we see the man really characterized by the Psalm, viz: Jesus, in whose history we at the same time recognize the deeper significance of its words, and learn to give to the words, lowered a little below the angels a new and profounder import. The Messianic application of Psalms 8 is made in a different way by Jesus Himself at Mat 21:16, and again in still another way by Paul 1Co 15:27. In both cases, however, Jesus is regarded as the Lord, equal to God; and as such is also the doctrine of our author, we need not, by our anxiety to retain the historical sense of the , be misled into the rendering of Hofm., Him who was well-nigh equal to the angels. The transition of the of degree into the of time is all the more easy, from the fact that on the one hand the meaning of the phrase is in clasical Greek more commonly temporal, and that, on the other, the actual state of the case, mans inferiority to angels, having its ground in his corporeal and mortal nature, is but transient, and limited to his earthly life; while for Jesus, this period of His life, being already completely finished, belongs now to the past. We are, in like manner, to reject Hofmanns reference of the words: crowned with glory and honor, to the furnishing out and endowing of Jesus at His entrance into the world, or to His designation and appointment as Saviour; also his idea that the suffering of death refers to that suffering of death to which man, instead of enjoying his destined sovereignty, is subjected, and which, consequently, becomes thus the occasioning cause of the appointment of Jesus as Saviour. For Christs appointment as Saviour is indicated in the words, lowered for some little below the angels, while His crowning is constantly referred in the New Testament to His heavenly reward, obtained after His successful and victorious life-conflict of suffering and of faith; while again, His suffering of death appears as the ground and procuring cause of His glorification, (Heb 5:10; Php 2:9). Precisely for this reason also we are to refer the ., not (with Orig., Chrys., Theod., Aug., Bez., Calov, etc.,) to . but to . as is also indicated by its position in the sentence.
That by the grace of God, on behalf of every man, he might taste of death.The clause commencing with [in order that=] and thence introducing not a mere result (Eras., Kuin., etc.) but purpose, cannot, from the nature of the thought, be connected directly with . [crowned in order that], nor from the structure of the sentence with ., but must be regarded either as a pregnant exponent of , (Thol., Ln.), or as belonging to the entire participial predicative clause[i.e., crowned on account, etc.](Del.) and thus assigning the reason why Jesus was exalted, not without the suffering of death, and even on account of it; or, according to my view, as final object of the two-fold declaration respecting Christs transfer into His two successive states of humiliation and glorification. With this explanation accords best the reasoning of the following verse; and in the present final clause itself, the authors main point is not to explain why Jesus has gone through suffering to glory (with which understanding Grot., Carpz., Storr, Bleek, etc., supply, from the preceding , an explanatory ) but to declare the object to be subserved alike by the incarnation of the First Born, and the exaltation of the Crucified One in the inseparable unity of the theanthropic person Jesus, viz.: the fulfilment of the divine purpose, that Jesus should, by the grace of God, for the benefit of every one, taste of death. There is no reason for laying the entire stress on , although the masc. sing is employed with a designed emphasis. The weight of the thought is rather distributed nearly equally between the impressive closing words , taste of death, the , which declares the universality of the purpose and merit of His death, accomplished by His entrance into glory, and the which refers back the whole, for its efficient and originating cause, to the grace of God. (We add, in passing, that the taste of death refers neither to brevity of durationsimply tasting, (as Chrys., Primas., Braun, etc.,) nor to the bitterness of the death (Calov), nor to its reality (Beza, Bengel), but presupposes Jesus personal experience of the suffering of death and his incarnation). Even the reading would not necessarily require more than a secondary stress to be laid upon . This would be the most natural, as also would the neuter rendering of (every thing), only in case we take the thought to be that Jesus suffered death for all existences, with the single exception of God (Orig., Theodor., Ebr.), contrary to Heb 2:16; or, in order, with the exception of God, to gain and subjugate every thing to Himself (Beng., Chrys., Fr. Schmidt); the thought in this case being parallel to that Eph 1:10, and the form of expression to 1Co 15:27. Other interpreters take the words as an independent characterization, either of the subject of the clause [Christ separately from God], or of the verb [taste of death apart from God]. The former is advocated by Theod. Mops. and his pupil Nestorius, by Ambros., Fulgent., and Colomesius, (Obb. sacr. 603), who thus made Christ to have died in His humanity, without participation of His divinity: the latter, with a reference to Mat 27:46, by Paul., and Baumgart., (Sach. I. 359, and in the Sermon: How the sight of Jesus, amidst the woes of life, suffices for our blessedness, Brunsw. 1856). Hofm., who formerly explained thus (Weiss. I. 92): Jesus has tasted death, , by surrendering to death a life (commencing in time), separated from God, has abandoned both the interpretation and the reading on which it was based. The dispute regarding its genuineness is ancient. For while Orig. (at Joh 1:1) declares that he had found the reading only , Jerome (ad Gal 1:2) has, in like manner, found absque Deo only in quibusdam exemplaribus.
Heb 2:10. For it became himperfect through sufferings,it seems, at first view, more natural to find the stress of the thought in (Ln., Del.) than in (Thol.), by which is reduced to a mere secondary and incidental place. In the former case, the way so offensive to the Jews, which leads the Messiah to glory through suffering and death, is here justified as entirely worthy of God. In the other case, we should have the thought expressed that it was indispensable that He should be glorified Himself, who became to others the author of salvation. But the connection demands an equal emphasis upon both points, to which also corresponds the two-fold description of God as the Being by whom and for whom are all things. Godnot Christ, as (Prim., Hunn., Dorsch., Cram., etc.)is designated as the final cause (for whom), and the instrumental cause (by or through whom) of all, in order, at the same time, to remind the reader that alike the , perfecting, which is the end, and the , sufferings, which are the means, stand respectively in corresponding relation to those respective aspects of Gods being and agency. The perfecting () embraces at once the outward and the inward, the formal and the spiritual elements of perfecting, Heb 9:9, the bringing the person to the goal by the complete realization and fulfilment of his entire destiny (Thol.), so that the reaching of the highest outward goal is the consequence of internal moral perfection (Camero, de W.). For the perfect () stands in contrast alike with the incipient, the imperfect, and the unrealized (Kstl.). Ln. takes the idea too restrictedly as identical with . . .
As leading many sonsperfect through sufferings.We might be inclined to refer the participial clause, leading many sons, etc., to Jesus, as in apposition with Leader of their salvation, ( ), but placed emphatically before it as in Heb 2:9 (so Primas., Erasm., Este, Ebr., Win.). And to this neither the absence of the Art. before (Bhm., Bl.), nor the expression , sons (Ln.), constitutes any objection. For as to the former, the participial clause is only made by the failure of the Art., subordinate to its noun [the Leader, as one who led] instead of being cordinated with it as in case of the employment of the Art. [the Leader who led]; and as to the latter we might say that while those brought to glory are indeed brethren of Christ, yet here they are mentioned not, in their relation to Him, as brethren, but in their relation to God as sons, especially as God is the subject of the entire sentence. But the word . (Heb 12:2; Act 3:15; Act 5:31) needs no explanatory apposition (Ln.). It is an abridged form of , with which, Philo designates the first Adam, and it denotes him who, at the head of a company, goes in advance of them, and leads them to a like goal; it thus passes over into the sense of author, originator, and becomes= (Bl. II. 1, p. 302). The goal is here salvation (), to which glory () in the participial clause is entirely equivalent. We refer, therefore (with Chrys., Luth., Calov, and most intpp.), this participial clause more fittingly to God, of whom then the same is said, as the expression, Leader of their salvation, declares in reference to Christ. He is author of salvation for a great number of children, who are styled many, not in the sense of all, (Seb. Schmidt), and not in antithesis to all, but in contrast to few, and in relation to the One (Del.). The irregular Acc. (for Dat. ) cannot be urged (as by Carpz., Mich., etc.) against this construction; for the Accus. is the natural case for the subject of the Inf., whence also transitions into it are frequent in spite of a preceding Dat. (Khn., Gr. II., 346; Bernh. Synt., 367; Buttm. Gr. N. Test., 1859, p. 262).
The Aor. Part. () was formerly commonly taken in the sense of the Pluperf., and was applied, if it was referred to God as subject, to the saints of the Old Test., as Hofm. even still says (II., 1, 39): The God who has led many sons to glory, a Moses to the prophetic, an Aaron to the high-priestly, a David to the royal dignity, must render this Son, to whom He had given as His distinguishing vocation, the realization of that destiny of humanity which is set forth in Psalms 8, perfect through suffering. If, on the contrary, the Part. were referred to Christ, then they were applied (as still by Win. Gr. Ed. 6) to the men already saved through the personal instructions of Jesus. But it is alike inadmissible to weaken the idea of , glory, hitherto used of Christs heavenly glorification, into the lower conception of an earthly, prophetic, priestly, or kingly dignity, and to make the teachings of Jesus, exclusively of His glorious exaltation acquired by sufferings, the cause of salvation. All more recent investigations, however, show that the restricting of the Aor. Part, to the pasta restriction already previously abandoned in reference to the Infin.is inadmissible. The future signification which many expositors, as even Grotius and Bleek, following Erasmus, give to the participle, is certainly unwarrantable. And to refer it again (with Grot., Limb., Schlicht.), to the eternal purpose and decree of God, though justified by Kuinoel on the ground of an utterly erroneous canon of the earlier Rhetoricians, that the Aor. can be used de conatu, is, of course, to be rejected. Customary action may, indeed, be denoted by the Aor., but we are forbidden to assume such a use here, by the fact that we are required by the term to restrict the Sons spoken of to the New Testament times, excluding those of the Old. [I would add, that there is no such use of the Aor. Participle to denote customary action, as would, in any case, justify the construction here supposed.K.]. This difficulty is evaded by Tholucks assumption, that, here, without respect to relations of time, the Part. expresses the simple way and manner of the perfection, claiming that the Aor. connected with the finite verb, may express that which is contemporaneous with the finite verb, whether mention of this be present or future. To this Ln. objects, that while the Aor. Infin. may be thus used irrespectively of time, this usage does not extend to the Part., and that cannot express the way and manner of the the perfectinginasmuch as the personal objects of the two verbs are different, having for its object , sons, and , the Captain, . The former remark, however, does not touch the examples adduced by Tholuck; and the latter appears to rest on a misapprehension. For the perfecting of Jesus, as Leader of salvation, has been historically accomplished in His person in no other way and manner than by having had personally His career and course of life in a communion and fellowship of men believing on Him, and transformed by Him into children of God, who, after His manner and type, were led to glory(a manner and type which Jac., Cappell. and Grot. restrict too exclusively to sufferings). To this also comes substantially the explanation of Ln. himself, viz., that from the stand-point of the writer, the participial clause stands in causal relation to the main proposition, and that the Aor. Part. is justified by the fact that in reality God, from the moment Christ came upon earth as Redeemer, and found faith existing, led to glory, that is, put upon the way to glory, those who had become believers in Him.
[The knot of the difficulty of the Aor. Part. is scarcely yet untied. That it may grammatically be equally well referred either to God, or to the Leader of salvation, Christ, seems unquestionable; and in either construction it makes nearly equally good sense, and is liable substantially to the same difficulties. Granting it, however (as with most, I, on the whole, prefer), to be connected with God (to which, as Moll justly remarks, and for the reason which he assigns, the Acc. case of the Part. constitutes no objection), it still remains a question why, and in precisely what sense, the Aor. Part. is used. That, like the Inf., it can be used without specific reference to past time, and that, in a certain sense, it takes its time from its accompanying finite verb, is unquestionable. It usually thus either denotes an act actually, or ideally and logically separable from that expressed by the finite verb, and conceived as logically prior to it, or, as remarked by Thol., expresses its way and manner. Thus to give examples of its several uses:
1. Of its frequent use as applied to past time: God, after speaking () to the Fathers, spoke to us, etc. Opening () their treasures, they presented. They opened their treasures and presented.
2. Of contemporaneous action actually distinct: On seeing () the star, they rejoiced. They saw the star before they could rejoice, and yet they rejoiced as soon as they saw the star. Logically, the seeing preceded the rejoicing: chronologically they were simultaneous.
3. A still stronger case of the merely logical separation: Answering () he said=he answered and said. The answering and saying are absolutely and completely one and the same act, but the mind views it under two distinct aspects, and of these the answering is logically anterior to the saying. So Jesus crying with a loud voice, said, Father, etc., here, as in the preceding, the distinction of time is purely logical, the crying and saying being two aspects of the same act.
4. These latter examples often run into way and manner: Answering, he said=he answered and said, or nearly=he said in the way of answering. , he drank poison and died, or here more exactly, he died of drinking poison. Plato does not mean to say (Phd. I.) after drinking poison he died, but he drank poison and died, or better, he died by drinking poison. Hence the Aor. Part. sometimes denotes almost or quite purely, way and manner.
5. We may remark, that the Aor. Part. may be employed to denote an idea that is strictly subordinate to that of the accompanying verb, or really cordinate with it, and of equal, or even superior importance. Thus, He directed me coming () to inform him, might be either, he directed me after coming, to inform him, or to come and inform him; and only the connection can show whether the act expressed by the Part. is included in the command, or only presupposed by it. Thus He commanded him, arising, () to take the child and flee, might be either on or after arising, to take the child and flee, or to arise and take, etc. The connection only can positively determine.
In view of the above, the natural renderings of the Aor. Part. here would be: 1. (with Hofm.). It became him, etc., after leading many sons to glory, which, however, is nearly impossible as to the thought, even after rejecting Hofmanns absurd reference of it to Christs Old Testament predecessors, and referring it, as we might possibly do, to all the righteous whom God had formerly led to glory. One grand objection to this is, that the Old Testament saints had not as yet been led to glory (Heb 11:39-40). Or 2. It became him by leading many sons to glory, with Thol. making the Part. express the way and manner. To this, however, Lnemanns objection is valid, that then the Part. and the verb ought to have the same personal object, as it seems difficult to see how God could perfect Jesus, one being, by leading many sons, other beings, to glory, unless we reply with Moll that the career of our Lord was so intimately blended with the life of His people, that His perfection was really accomplished in the processnot exclusively of sufferingby which they were brought to glory. This answer is ingenious, but hardly satisfactory. Or 3. Taking the Part. not as expressing a subordinate, but a cordinate or principal idea: It became him to lead many sons, etc., and to make: which, however, it must be confessed, hardly seems to be the writers idea. To render the Part. as future, being about to lead, or for the purpose of leading ( or ), or as present while leading (), is out of the question. It is, indeed, possible to render it as leading absolutely,=as one who led; and this perhaps, all things considered, is the best mode of constructing it. But this is harsh, and I know of no strictly parallel examples in Greek prose. Exceptional constructions in the poets are hardly worth the citing, even if they can be found. Were there even any slight external authority for or , on internal grounds I should hardly hesitate to adopt it. The rendering of the Eng. vers., in bringing many sons, etc., would naturally require , or at the least, the Pres. Part., .K.].
Heb 2:11. For both he that sanctifieth and theyare all from one.Having designated Jesus as the Son of God, the author now justifies his application of the same term to those who believe in Him. Not barely the One, but also the others (); not merely the Sanctified (Peirce, Beng.), but they together with the Sanctifier, i.e., with Jesus Christ (Heb 9:13; Heb 13:12), are from One. From one ( ) expresses not likeness of nature and character (ejusdem natur et conditionis spiritualis, Calv., Camero), but simply community of origin; and this not ex communi massa (J. Cappell, Akersloot); not from one seed, or blood, or stock, ( scil. , or , or , as Carpz., Abresch, etc.); nor from Adam (Erasm., Bez., Este, etc.), but from God. For the language relates not to that relationship subsequently adverted to Heb 2:14, by joint participation in humanity, but to spiritual brotherhood with Christ, a brotherhood founded in that translation from the darkness of a life estranged from God into a union with Him as the perfectly pure and absolute and essential light, which Christ, as the Sanctifier, has wrought for us as the sanctified. This is effected, as is subsequently shown, by the high-priestly work, which Jesus Christ, as eternal Priestly King, accomplishes in heaven. For by our Epistle denotes the accomplishment of the actual commencement of the true fellowship of individuals with God, in the Covenant relation which God Himself has instituted, on the basis of the expiation wrought by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and in virtue of the purification obtained through the blood of Jesus Christ, under the point of view of dedication to a Divine relationship, Heb 9:13 f.; Heb 10:10; Heb 10:14; Heb 10:29; Heb 13:12. This expression also has its origin in the terminology of the Old Testament, but has within the sphere of New Testament fulfilment and realization, a more than merely nominal and ritual significance. The Pres. Part. may stand without reference to distinction of time, in the sense of substantives (Winer), [that is, any Participle may, with the Article, be employed in the sense of a concrete substantive, as the Infinitive with the Art. is employed in the sense of the abstract ( , the being sanctified: , he who has been sanctified), while the Pres. tense denotes, according to the nature of the case, that which is going on at the time specified by the principal verb, or that which from time to time or habitually takes place. Thus may denote those who are being sanctified, or are in process of sanctification, or, those who, from time to time, are sanctified, i.e., the successive classes of the sanctified.K.]. It is a characteristic of Christ to exercise this ministry: of us to receive its influence and efficient power. Thus we are from God (Joh 8:47; 1Jn 4:6), and the language can be applied to Jesus, as here the subject is the Saviours earthly and historical relation to God. Hence we need not find the Father in Abraham (Drus., Peirce, Beng.), nor again refer to God as creative (Chrys. and the Fathers), but as spiritual Father (Grot., Limb., etc.). And thus, under this connection, we need not take the words as denoting a properly universal relation (Hofm.) restricted in its application to Christ and Christians by a reference to the O. T. priesthood (Schlicht., Gerh., etc.). They refer directly to Christ and Christians.
For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.In accordance with the character of the Epistle, the author appeals not to the words of Jesus Himself regarding this his fraternal relation, but regards it as belonging essentially to the fulfilment of the Messiahs vocation; and hence, as so typified in the O. Test., that alike David the Theocratic Ruler, and Isaiah the prophetic Servant of Jehovah, recognize, feel, and express this their relation in the Church, and embrace in a unity with themselves those who otherwise are subordinated to them, and dependent upon them. In subjoining, therefore, his proof passages, the writer adds: for which cause he is not ashamed, an expression which points on the one hand to the distinction between Christs Sonship and that of believers (Chrys., Theod.); and on the other, to his sincere and hearty condescension to this fellowship, in proof of which are now given three citations from the Scripture.
Heb 2:12. Saying, I will declare, etc.The first passage is from Psa 22:23, according to the LXX, except that is substituted for . David, amidst the sore distress of his flight from before Saul, reposes in faith, as one whom Samuel had anointed, upon the promise made to him of the throne, and declares, in the midst of affliction, not merely this assurance of deliverance and exaltation, but also his determination to declare on this account to his brethren in the congregation, to the seed of Jacob, to them that fear Jehovah, the name, the grace, the help of the Lord, and summon them to join him in praising God. We need assume neither that Christ speaks in David, nor that the Psalmist has transferred himself into the person of Christ. Nor need we interpose the ideal or abstract righteous person (Heng.) in order to justify the Messianic application of this Psalm. We can conceive it as purely typical (Hofm.), or, regarding the prophecy of history as here united with verbal prophecy, we may regard it as typico-prophetical (Del.).
The second passage is found three times in the form I will put my trust in him,so that the author has merely reversed the order of the first two words, and prefixed an emphatic . The passage Isa 12:2, cannot possibly be referred to; while that 2Sa 22:3 is intrinsically suitable. Still we are not necessarily forced to this from the fact that a separates it from the third (Isa 8:17) as well as from the first (Ebr.). Rather we may more naturally refer it to Isa 8:17, because the immediately following verse in Isaiah is employed as the third citation, and the separation of the two verses springs not from the authors wish to accumulate proofs (Ln.), but from the two passages presenting the relation in question under two different aspects (Del.); first, that the speaker associates himself with his brethren in a common attitude of spirit toward God, viz., that of confidential trust, which belongs properly to all the children of God; secondly, that he embraces in one himself and the children that God has given him. Of course these two passages refer but typically to Jesus; but this typical view is entirely legitimate. For Isaiah, whose very name points to the Saviour, not merely prophesies with prophetic words, but has also begotten children who are partly pledges for the salvation of Jehovah, which is to come after affliction and through judgment, and partly, like him, point by their names symbolically to this relation, and by their position prefigure it. It is hence needless to assume (as Bl., Ln.) that the author has been led by the , introduced by the LXX. before Isa 8:17, to suppose that the Messiah is the speaker, in that these words appeared to point to another subject than the prophet, who, in the whole section, has spoken in the first person, and also to another subject than God, since the latter is in the named as He in whom the speaker puts his trust.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Angels may, indeed, sometimes be conceived as guardian spirits of individual men, and as heads of entire nations, and are also designated in Scripture as dominions, principalities, and powers, which in themselves, again, have distinctions of position, of power, and of rank. But a dominion over the world is never ascribed to them, neither over the world of creation, nor over that of redemption. It is, for this reason, folly to invoke them as helpers of our need, or to expect from them any saving intercession.
2. The destination of man to the dominion of the world, has the possibility of its realization in his possession of the divine image. Hence, under the dominion of sin, the actual condition of man cannot correspond to his Divine destination. But on account of mans susceptibility of redemption, and in reference to his future redemption, the attainment of this destination becomes the goal of history, and is an essential part of the Divine promises.
3. The attainment of this destination of our race, can be reached by individuals only on the ground of redemption, and that, too, in that new world, which, in its hidden ground and germ, is already present; but in its glorified form of manifestation, is still in the future. It is linked completely, and in all respects, with the mediation of Christ as the Redeemer. But those who, through Him, have become children of God, will, by virtue of their birthright, enter into the possession of the promised land (Mat 5:6), and of the world (Rom 4:13), and sitting with Him upon the throne of His glory (Mat 19:28), and on the seat of His Father (Rev 3:21; Rev 5:10) will reign with Him as priestly kings (Rom 5:17; 2Ti 2:12), and as His saints will judge the world (1Co 6:2), and the angels (Heb 2:3).
4. That which for humanity is still in the future, we see in the person of Jesus Christ already realized. In Him the destiny of man is attained, so that in Him, idea and realization are united. An ancient voice from the synagogue (with Del., p. 59, from Biesenthals Rabb. Comm., 1857, p. 1) says: The mystery of Adam is the mystery of the Messiah; Adam is the anagram of , , . And the midrash at Psa 104:1 : God lent to Moses , and to Joshua in that he purposed yet, in accordance with Psa 21:6, to lend both to King Messiah.
5. But precisely for this reason has also the history of Jesus an inestimable value. We have in it no mythological presentation of religious ideas, no symbolical expression of general relations, no moral portraiture of the ideal man, as a postulate of reason and of conscience; but, however wide-reaching may be this history, and flexible and various in its applications, it is yet in its being matter of fact that it has its true significance and importance. For the peculiarity of the Christian faith is not the idea of communion with God, and the idea of a salvation furnished by the theanthropic personalities and arrangements. This is rather a characteristic of all religious faith. The distinguishing feature of the Christian faith is the certainty of the realization of salvation, for eternal ages and for all believers, a realization accomplished in a single historical subject, in Jesus of Nazareth, and by the acts of His life.
6. Although men, by the fact that they live in a body of flesh and blood, hold for the time being a position subordinated to angels, as heavenly spirits, yet it is precisely in this relationship with earthly creatures, above whom men are again, by their spiritual natures, specifically exalted, that there exists the possibility of mans central position and of his history in his fall and redemption within the sphere of the universe. He is the creaturely, as Christ is the uncreated, head of the creation.
7. The glorification of the body in the future world, whose type and pledge we behold, in the Son of man, crowned with glory and honor at the right hand of the Father, and the participation of the whole thus glorified man, in the glory of the Lord, elevates him completely and forever above the angels. His subordination to these, is but for a little, in respect alike of degree and time.
8. Patient endurance in our present position, in which we as yet see not the fulfilment of our destiny, and of the promises relating to it, is rendered difficult to us by our sufferings, but is rendered easy by the participation and example of Christ. Sufferings have been for Him no hinderance, but rather the ground and means of His glorification; hence we are not to be displeased at the sufferings which we ourselves experience, and are to take no offence at the sufferings of Jesus Christ, but in order rightly to understand and profit by them, are to have regard to their cause and their purpose.
9. A remembrance of that crowning of Christ which has been achieved by sufferings, and the declaration of the gracious purpose of God, in the death of Christ, viz., that Christ tasted death for us, should, on the one hand, awaken our consciousness of guilt, on the other, strengthen our faith in the redemption already secured, and our hope of the glorification yet to be attained: for alike Christs suffering and His coronation have sprung neither from accident, nor from any natural necessity, nor from caprice, nor from outward compulsion; but have taken place in free love, in willing obedience, according to Gods gracious purpose for the accomplishment of the true end and destination of the world.
10. The final object of the world, is to reflect back the glory of God. It can fulfil this object only under the dominion of man who corresponds with his destination, i.e., who mirrors in himself the glory of God. In the attainment of this, his destination, man has been hindered by sin, but sin does not merely hinder his reaching the goal; it brings him into positive destruction. Thus for the accomplishment of the worlds destiny, a deliverer of the race becomes indispensable, who has been Himself incorporated into it, as a member, yet whose life is of such a nature, that He can work vicariously, and by His own progress through suffering to glory, can become the author, pioneer, and captain of salvation, for the children whom God leads to glory.
11. The birth and introduction of this indispensable Deliverer, is no result of mere natural development or product of the natural course of human affairs, but a work of Divine freedom and love, corresponding to the holy nature of the Eternal and Omnipotent One, who from everlasting to everlasting has, as to Himself and as to all things, absolute knowledge and control, and has Himself placed Himself, not merely in His glory, as the end, for the sake of which, but in His goodness and might as the cause by means of which, all beings are and exist. The means by which we, as redeemed ones are led to glory, correspond, therefore, alike to the ultimate end and the nature of Him who has both ordained the end, and arranged the means.
12. The fellowship which Christ has with those who are led to glory, rests, in its ultimate ground, on their common origin from one and the same Father. They are all children of God, by virtue of their birth from God. But this fellowship includes an essential diversity. Christ is the eternal Son of God, of like nature with the Father, and hence even in His state of humiliation, needs no regeneration of His nature from the corruption of sin, but only, by virtue of His true humanity, was susceptible and participant of perfection in the pathway of suffering. As the proper and peculiar (, Rom 8:32) Son of the Father He is in Himself (holy). But by virtue of the perfection of His life in the flesh, He, as , sanctifier, imparts, by taking away sin and communicating His holy obedience (Heb 9:13-14; Heb 10:10; Heb 10:14; Heb 10:29; Heb 13:12) this quality to those who by adoption and regeneration receive the Divine Sonship, and acknowledges expressly the common brotherhood which He has with them preminently on the spiritual side.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
To what shall we adhere, amidst the contradictions of our earthly life, and amidst the strifes and turmoil of the world? 1. To the word of God, which announces to us the truth; 2. to the grace of God, which works our salvation; 3. to the Son of God, who has become our brother.Wherewith shall we comfort and sustain ourselves amidst the sufferings of time? 1. With hope of the glory of the future world. 2. With faith in the certainty of our redemption in Christ Jesus. 3. With the love of the children of God.We shall triumph victoriously over all dangers which threaten us, if we1, keep in our eye our destination to that dominion over the world which God has given us; 2, tread the path to perfection which God has ordained and pointed out to us; 3, allow ourselves to be led with all the children of God in following Jesus as the Captain of our salvation.The greatness and power of the wondrous grace of God is most clearly discoverable by us: 1, in the preminence to which in the creation He destined us above all creatures; 2, in the accomplishment of our redemption by the giving of His Son for us; 3, in leading the redeemed to sanctification, and to a perfected life in glory.The Sonship which we possess with God is: 1, a work of grace which binds us to grateful acknowledgment of our unworthiness, and the Divine compassion; 2, a state of salvation which summons us to abiding trust in the Lord; 3, a common brotherhood which stimulates to mutual love in our following after Christ.Why it is needful and good in all cases to put confidence in God the Lord: 1, because He is the God through whom, as the Almighty, all things are: 2, in like manner, the God for whose sake all things are, for the manifestation of His glory; 3, and further, the God who, as the absolutely truthful One, certainly executes the utterances of His lips; 4, who, as the compassionate One, stoops to His creatures in their necessities; 5, and as the Holy, Ever-living, Unchangeable God, in the only fitting way brings His purposes to accomplishment.The way through suffering to glory is ordained for us of God: 1, on account of our sins, which hinder us in the promised attainment of our destiny: 2, by the grace of God, which will lead many children to glory; 3, after the pattern of Jesus Christ, who, as Captain of our salvation, was made perfect through sufferings.From temporal sufferings spring eternal joys if they bring us: 1, under the guidance of God; 2, into the following of Christ; 3, into eternal glory.
Starke:Everything is subject to Christ, not only in this world, but also in the future. O that in true obedience of faith we may henceforth subject ourselves to Him, that we may not be obliged to bow to His chastisement as Judge!Of the majesty and glory of Christ we must judge not according to our reason or sense, but solely according to the word of God; otherwise we shall go widely astray, 1Co 2:9.The character of Christs Kingdom is not worldly, but invisible and spiritual. What wonder, then, that we cannot comprehend with our senses the character of His majestic Presence and Dominion? Joh 18:36; Luk 17:20-21.As one portion of the prophecy regarding Christ is already fulfilled, viz., that He should be crowned with glory and honor, we need not doubt that the rest will also be fulfilled, and that all things will be brought perfectly beneath His feet.The grace, love and compassion of God are the source of our entire salvation; but the love of the Father was also the love of the Son, Gal 2:20. Observe that the expiatory death of Christ is to be for the benefit of all men, without exception, and is to be applied to them under the condition of faith, 1Ti 2:6.Precious word! The Lord Christ has tasted death for us, that we might live before Him, Rom 5:10; Col 1:22.If God has taken this method with His Son, that He should be exalted by suffering, then must we also, through many tribulations, enter into eternal life, Act 14:22; Christ is our breaker, Mic 2:13.Christ, the Captain of thy salvation, has been made perfect by sufferings; why, then, thou cross-shunner, wilt thou not go a like way? 1Pe 4:13.Believers are indeed brethren of Christ, on account of His human nature, but actually to bear the title and that from love is a work of the grace which they do not deserve. For He, the Brother and Head, is of far greater glory than His members.The haughtiness of man must be put to shame before the condescension of Christ, who acknowledges us as His brethren. How unreasonable in us not to bear the shame of the poverty, or sinfulness, or impurity of our nearest friends, when Christ bears the shame of our sins!Behold how men are honored even yet above the angels! Holy and glorious as are these latter, they are not brethren of the Son of God. Should it not arouse us to an humble, indeed, but still joyful praise of God, that we not only have Christ our Brother on the throne of the Divine Majesty, but are also ourselves with Him to be raised to the like royal dignity?Believers are brethren of Jesus and Sons of God. What a consolation! How is it possible that they should ever be sorrowful? Rom 8:17.All men are delivered over to Christ for the attainment of salvation; but happy are they who also deliver up themselves in the appropriation of it by the influence of the Holy Spirit, Joh 6:44.If Christ the Lord of Heaven and Earth is not ashamed to acknowledge us as His brethren, we also should be mindful with all diligence to maintain brotherly love among ourselves, and to evince it by words and deeds.The exclamation, Behold, I, expresses: 1, that the Messiah exhibits Himself as present, and, as with the finger, points to Himself: Behold, here am I! Isa 40:5; Isa 40:9; Isa 52:6-7; Isaiah 2, that His appearance in the flesh would be wondrous and remarkable, Isa 7:14; Isa 9:5; 1Ti 3:16; 1 Timothy 3, His readiness and perfect willingness to speak, to do, and to suffer, that which had been laid upon Him, Is. L. 4, 5; Psa 41:7-9; Psalms 4, that it was He to whom the eyes of all Israel were to look, nay, also the heathen, Isa 45:22.If it is said of Christ that He reposes His confidence in God, He is not regarded in His character as God, but as having become man, and as executing His assumed work of redemption. And this confidence involves in itself: 1, that the Messiah would exhibit Himself in a lowly, poor and unprotected condition; 2, that He would be in much suffering and danger from enemies; 3, that He would not at all times make use of His Divine power, but would surrender His life to the power of His Father; 4, that He would have abiding assurance of the Divine willingness to aid him.It was in accordance with Divine: 1, love, that it should discover so effectual a means for the restoration of our lost bliss; 2, righteousness, that it should be such a means as should render satisfaction to righteousness itself; 3, wisdom, that the love and righteousness of God should, through this means, unitedly and in equal measure, distinguish themselves; 4, truth, in order that that which God in the Old Testament had promised at so great cost, and had prefigured in so many types, should be fulfilled, and the Head should stand, in respect to suffering, in close communion with the members; 5, honor, that this might thereby be most gloriously promoted.God has done every thing which He has done for the manifestation and glorifying of His name, and this with the most entire propriety; otherwise He who possesses perfectly in Himself all glory, would have, as it were, denied Himself. Thus must the honor of God be placed as the object in all things, Psa 115:1; Eph 1:5-6.Believers under the Old Testament were equally with those in the New Testament, brethren of the Lord Jesus, Mat 12:50.
Berlenburger Bible:Future things we must hold fast by means of the past and present. But men spring away from them and submit to no struggle. While they grasp after that which glitters, and despise the unostentatious, they wage absolutely no conflict. Many would have only glory, and would only become Lords with their Messiah; therefore they have utterly lost Christ. They would have a king in Christ, but not a bleeding priest.What to our corrupt eyes appears abominable, is becoming in the eyes of God. This becomingness we should always study; all other decorum, all that otherwise belongs to well being, or is reckoned as such, our art may well let pass.Since we have lost our case by evil doing, it must be recovered by suffering. For this leads through ways of righteousness, and yet from the impulse of love. Hence comes it that such an arrangement became him.We cannot come directly to holiness without expiation, but we all have equal right to both.It is true that our humanity and Divinity constitute a pair totally unlike, yet this miserable unlikeness has awakened the compassion of God to undertake such a work on our behalf.Had it depended on our judgment, nothing would have been accomplished in the work of redemption.It is perhaps easily told how many elements faith has; but the thing itself costs a struggle; man, however, would gladly triumph before the victory.
Laurentius:Divine truths in the Holy Scripture must also be experienced.Christs state of humiliation lasted only for a little time.To Christ in His human nature, all things are subjected.Whom God makes righteous, He also makes glorious. Believers have one and the same Father with Christ.
Rambach:Believers need no visible Head, but stand immediately under Christ, Heb 12:9.Christ was humbled a short time below the angels: 1, in that sometimes the service of the angels was withdrawn from Him, as otherwise they are required to worship and serve Him; 2, in that He was exposed to the assaults of wicked angels; 3, in that He subjected Himself to the law which was given by angels.In the sufferings of Christ were disclosed the grace and righteousness of God. His grace toward us, in laying our sin and punishment upon His Son; His righteousness in Christ as the surety, Rom 3:25.Had Christ been a mere man, he had had absolutely no cause to be ashamed of His fellow-creatures, even though He had been elevated to the highest honor, as also Joseph was not ashamed to acknowledge his brethren, Gen 45:4; in like manner, Moses, Act 7:22.
Steinhofer:It is the mystery of the Divine good pleasure, that a man from our midst should be Lord on the throne of majesty, and have dominion over all things. Here none can ask, Why doest thou so? Here none can inquire, Why is it so determined? Why has it been so arranged, and accomplished, in Christ Jesus? But, instead, we readily bow ourselves to the earth and adore. I mean that we honor the counsel of eternity; we are astonished at the riches of grace; it is our profoundest pleasure that such is the good pleasure of God; we kiss the Son; we rejoice in this our Lord.The lowliness and condescension of our Redeemer, the great Son of God, puts us to shame, as often as we behold Him in this form; it inspires in us pangs of love, it melts our hearts like wax before Him.The simple look of faith toward Jesus, best learns the great mystery of the eternal purpose of God for our salvation. With this we look upon His cross, we look upon His crown. Faith grasps both together.The grounds and causes of this entire procedure, viz., that the Captain of salvation should be made perfect by death, are Gods perceptions of Divine fitness and propriety.God takes His children out of the number of the most miserable sinners.Blessedness and glory are the two things we are to receive from our Saviour and Lord.Jesus legitimates among His people even the name of brother, so that all worldly titles of honor readily yield to it.It belongs to the office and work of Jesus, which is His highest joy and the delight of His heart, 1. that He gathers into a community the children of God, who have been ordained and presented to him by His Father; 2. that in His Church He announces and reveals the name of His Father; 3. that He conducts and brings His people to glory.The way of faith has been tried by the Son of God Himself, inasmuch as Jesus is a noble and thoroughly experienced Prince and Leader on the way of faith; but the power of God is required that one maintain faith to the end.
Hahn:If we can say with joy, Jesus is my Lord! then we have a pass which we can and may exhibit in the whole realm of creation.The path of suffering trod by Jesus, makes our own pleasant to us, and should repress our excessive murmuring against suffering.From Jesus we are to learn the true spirit of suffering, and in like manner the value of suffering in the eyes of God, and with this, bethink ourselves of the brevity of suffering. We should have perpetually before our eyes, 1. the Divine sense of propriety and fitness; 2. the career Christ entered upon wholly for us; 3. the way of faith which Christ makes so honorable to us.
Hiller:The Church is a community that treads a difficult way, but on this way is led by God; yet can enter upon it no otherwise than by blood, and by faith in one that was crucified.The Church is a people that is forever preserved and saved by God.
Rieger:From the love of the Father all further revelation of the kingdom of Christ, and hope therein, is to be derived.Of all which the result has confirmed, we can say, We see! though we may not have it directly before our eyes.As the Saviour, under suffering, solaced Himself by this, It takes place according as it has been decreed and written; as He, under the heaviest assaults of terror, subjected His most pressing demand, Is it possible? to the, As thou wilt! so still more, we, in reflection on His suffering, are to rest ourselves, in this good pleasure of God, in these Divine proprieties which are founded in the prerogatives of Gods majesty, and have an influence upon His entire kingdom.The chief power by which the Lord Jesus endured under suffering, and looked forward to His perfection, was trust. His official burden, the weight of sin that was laid upon Him, the judgment of God, might press Him as they would; His confidence He never cast away.
Heubner:The dignity of man was first brought to light by Revelation: it flows from Religion. Insignificant man becomes great by the grace of God. Toward no being has God so proved His grace as toward man, since for him He has given His Son.Christianity knows no perfection except in union with God, and participation in His blessedness.Christ has secured for God eternal praise, since the highest praise comes from ransomed souls.The redemption which was completely brought about and inaugurated by the death of Christ, could become universally known and rendered efficacious, only by His exaltation. In this was demonstrated and confirmed the complete validity of His redemption.
Stier:It was not the wrath of God, it was not condemnation that Jesus tasted, but death; and death, too, not on account of the wrath of God, but from the grace of God. Of short duration was the mockery and the shame that attended Jesus suffering of death on our behalf; but eternal are the praise and the honor with which He is crowned.Although Christ died for all, yet are not all saved by Him, but only the many sons who let Him draw and lead them.
Steinmeyer:The fraternal relation sustained by the Lord to His believing ones: 1. how we have to unite this with His supreme and all-transcending dignity; 2. what an expression it should find in Christian life.
Hedinger:Believers are indeed brethren of Christ, on account of His human nature; but actually to bear the title is a work of that grace of which they are undeserving.
Baumgarten (1856):How looking to Jesus suffices for our happiness amidst the unhappiness of life.
Fricke:Suffering and victory are so little antagonistic to each other that the same being who has suffered is styled the Captain of salvation.
[Owen:The Lord Christ: 1. our head; 2. our only head, a. of vital influence, b. of rule and government; 3. our immediate head.If men forget the true God, and then lift up their eyes unto, or fall into the contemplation of the heavenly bodies, such is their glory, majesty, and excellency, that they will be driven and hurried unto the adoration and worship of them.The assumption of our nature into personal union with the Son of God, was an act of mere free, sovereign, unconceivable grace.God is more glorified in the humiliation and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the salvation of mankind thereby, than in any of, or all the works of the first creation.No love or grace will suit our condition but that which is incomprehensible. We find ourselves by experience to stand in need of more grace, goodness, love, and mercy, than we can look into, search to the bottom of, or fully understand.Jesus Christ as Mediator of the New Covenant hath absolute and supreme authority given unto Him over all the works of God in heaven and on earth.There is a double act of Gods predestination; the first is His designation of some unto grace, to be sons, Eph 1:5; the other His appointment of those sons unto glory; both to be wrought and accomplished by Christ, the Captain of their salvation.In bringing the elect unto glory, all the sovereign acts of power, wisdom, love and grace exerted therein, are peculiarly assigned unto the Father, as all ministerial acts are unto the Son as Mediator; so that there is no reason why He may not be said, by the way of eminency, to be the , the leader or bringer of His sons unto glory.As the obedience of Christ, which is our pattern, did incomparably exceed whatever we can attain unto; so the sufferings of Christ, which are our example, did incomparably exceed all that we shall be called unto.Christ is gone before us through death, and is become the first fruits of them that sleep. And had Christ passed into heaven before He died, as did Enoch and Elijah, we had wanted the greatest evidence of our future immortality.The Lord Jesus, being consecrated and perfected through sufferings, hath consecrated the way of suffering, for all that followed Him to pass through unto glory.No end of the mediation of Christ is accomplished in them who are not sanctified and made holy.A living head and dead members, a beautiful head and rotten membershow uncomely would it be! Such a monstrous body Christ will never own.There is no one thing required of the sons of God that an unsanctified person can do: no one thing promised them that he can enjoy].
Footnotes:
[2]Heb 2:6.The reading (Lach. Ed. Stereot. and Bl.) is not sufficiently supported.
[3]Heb 2:7.The lect. rec. , deemed spurious by Mill, bracketed by Lachman, cancelled since Griesbach, is a gloss from the LXX. The author has omitted it in citation as unnecessary to his purpose. It is found, however, in the original text of Cod. Sin.
[4]Heb 2:9.The reading , without, or apart from God (instead of ), preferred by Orig. and Theod. Mops., known by Jerome, made use of by Ambr., Fulgent. and Vigil. Thaps., strongly insisted on by the Nestorians, defended by Beng., Ebr., etc., is found only in Cod. 53 (Griesb.) of the 9 or 10 Cent., and Cod. 67 of the 11 or 12 Cent., and in the latter only on the margin. [For , which Theod. Mops. and Ebr., find eminently in place, no natural and appropriate meaning can here be found; while , which Ebr. denounces as flat and uncalled for, is eminently to the writers purpose, as commending the arrangement which involved the crucifixion of the Messiah, as one called for and originated by the grace of God. It would seem probable that may have originally been placed on the margin opposite Heb 2:8, limiting the expression, he left nothing unsubjected to himexcept God, after 1Co 15:27, and that a subsequent copyist, misled by the resemblance of to , substituted it in the text. At all events its history is curious, but the internal evidence is decisively against it.K.].
[5][By a failure to recognize this, the course of thought must be inextricably entangled. By referring the him already in Heb 2:8 to Jesus, we are obliged, in order to extract any sense out of the passage, to make a false distinction between Jesus being already crowned with glory and honor, as but a first step in his elevation, and an ultimate and more complete glorification. Such a distinction, we scarcely need say, is not in the authors mind at all. Crowned with glory and honor is repeated in Heb 2:9 as the exponent and representative of all the dignity and dominion expressed in the preceding verses; and the contrast is not between Jesus now partially exalted in token of His future complete exaltation, and that future complete exaltation, but between man, as such, not yet in himself exalted to his true original destination, and Jesus, the representative Man, thus exalted in Himself, and as the Leader of the destinies of humanity. Thus by taking man and him, through Heb 2:7-8, in their natural sense, and then, when it appears that in this sense the language of the Psalm is not fully borne out, applying them to the God-Man, we make the connection and the reasoning perfect.K.].
[6][Hofmanns first construction would be: But Jesus, having been, on account of His suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, we behold as one who has been for a little humbled below the angels, i. e.=we behold this being to have been for a little, etc. The latter, and unquestionably more correct construction is: But Him who has been for a little humbled below the angels, viz., Jesus, we behold on account of His suffering of death [to have been and to be now] crowned with glory and honor, and thus fulfilling in His own person that language of the Psalm, which in humanity proper is not fulfilled. This construction is equally natural, elegant and suited to the context.K.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
(5) For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. (6) But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? (7) Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: (8) Thou hast 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. But now we see not yet all things put under him. (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 should taste death for every man. (10) For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (11) For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, (12) Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. (13) And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
I will not detain the Reader with all the observations that might be made on these verses; for this would lead too far, in a work of this kind. A few of the more prominent points, are all I shall here offer.
And first. What the Apostle saith, of One in a certain place testifying of man; doth not refer to the first man Adam, or to mankind in general; but specially, and personally, to some identical one, and which is evidently Christ. It is a quotation from the 8th Psalm (Psa 8 ). Jesus himself hath very plainly made application of it to himself: Mat 21:16 . And the words are expressive of the astonishment the child of God finds, when truly regenerated by the Holy Ghost, the infinite condescension of Jehovah, by a means so wonderful as the incarnation of the Son of God, accomplishing redemption.
Secondly. The making him a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death; and yet, at the same time, putting all things, both men, and angels, and devils; yea, the whole creation, both visible, and invisible, under his feet; so that there is nothing left, but what is under the subjection of Christ: these are points, which arrest the mind, and call forth both the astonishment, love, and praise, of all the Church of God!
Thirdly. Christ is said to have tasted death for every man. The phrase is an expression to intimate knowledge of death. It is a figure borrowed from the common circumstances of mankind, such as when, in order to ascertain what a thing is, and to have a personal knowledge of it, we taste it. Such was the case here, in allusion to Christ’s death. By the grace of God he tasted it; that is, he endured it. When it is added, for every man, it is not to be supposed, that his death was intended a ransom for every individual of the human race; but for every one of his brethren, the heirs of salvation, as they are called: Heb 1:14 . And the following verses, of the many sons he is to bring to glory; the persons whom he is not ashamed to call brethren; and the children whom God hath given him: these terms very plainly define, and mark the characters of those, for whom Christ tasted death.
Fourthly. The necessity of Christ’s death, in being made perfect through sufferings, is also very blessedly expressed. It became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, so to be perfected. And this sweet Scripture is in exact correspondence to the whole testimony of the written word. For He that is heir of all things, is heir also of death. He is the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence, Col 1:18 ; Rev 1:5 .
Fifthly. The oneness of nature, between Christ and his people, is also most blessedly marked in these verses. Both he that sanctified, and they who are sanctified are all of one. Yes! Christ is himself the whole, and sole sanctification of his people. They have no holiness, but what is derived from him. They were first chosen to be holy, and without blame in Christ, before the foundation of the world, Eph 1:4 . They are redeemed from all iniquity by Him, during the time-state of the Church, Eph 1:7 . They are regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and made new creatures in Christ Jesus, when born again, 2Co 5:17 . And Christ is made of God to them, during the whole of their time-state upon earth, until grace is finished in glory, and forever; wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 1Co 1:30 . Hence those sweet scriptures which follow, in those verses, and are confirmed throughout the whole word of God, Psa 18:2Psa 18:2 ; Isa 8:18 ; 2Th 2:13-14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
Ver. 5. For unto the angels, &c. ] The Jews, as they had embraced the Pythagorean transanimation,Mat 16:14Mat 16:14 , so the Platonic opinion of angels moving the heavens, and ordering the world; whom therefore they worshipped, intruding into those things whereof there was no sound either proof or profit, Col 2:18 . The angels (say Proculus the Platonist and Plutarch) are messengers that carry God’s mind to men and men’s requests to God. a But who told them all this? Egregie dicis, sed quomodo probas? said Aristotle of Moses, may we better say of these bold affirmers.
a .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 18 .] The dogmatic argument now proceeds. The new world is subjected, by the testimony of the Scriptures, not to angels, but to Christ: who however, though Lord of all, was made inferior to the angels, that He might die for, and suffer with, being made like, the children of men .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
5 .] The proposition stated. For (the connexion is with the sentence immediately preceding, i. e. with Heb 2:2-4 . That former was spoken by angels: it carried its punishment for neglect of it: much more shall this , spoken by &c., confirmed by &c. FOR this whole state of things, induced by the proclamation of that salvation, is not subjected to angels, but to Christ, the Son of God. Then the fact that it is to MAN, and to Him AS MAN, that it is subjected, is brought in, and a new subject thus grafted on the old one of His superiority to the angels. See Bleek and Ebrard) not to angels ( stands in the place of emphasis, as contrasted with below) did He subject (aor.: at the date of His arrangement and laying out of the same. The subjection of this present natural world to the holy angels, as its administrators, is in several places attested in Scripture, and was a very general matter of belief among the Jews. In Deu 32:8 , we read in the LXX, , , . There, it is true, the Heb. text has, as E. V., “according to the number of the children (more properly, the sons , in the stricter sense) of Israel.” Origen, on Numbers, Hom. xxviii. 4, vol. ii. p. 385, says, “Secundum numerum angelorum ejus, vel ut in aliis exemplaribus legimus, secundum numerum filiorum Israel:” but perhaps, as Bleek suggests, it was not Origen that was pointing to a various reading in the Heb. text, but only his translator that was noticing that the Latin versions differed from the LXX. But the doctrine rests on passages about which there can be no such doubt. See Dan 10:13 ; Dan 10:20-21 ; Dan 12:1 , for this committal of kingdoms to the superintendence of angels: Rev 9:11 ; Rev 16:5 al., for the same as regards the natural elements: Mat 18:10 , as regards the guardianship of individuals: Rev 1:20 &c., for that of churches (for so, and not of chief bishops, is the name to be understood: see note there). See also Dan 4:13 . In the apocryphal and Rabbinical writings we find the same idea asserted, and indeed carried out into minute details. So in Sir 17:17 , , . . The Rabbinical authorities may be found in Bleek and Eisenmenger. See also a very elaborate article “Engel” by Bhme in Herzog’s Encyclopdie: and testimonies to the view of the early church from Eusebius (Demonstr. Evang. iv. 2, vol. iv. p. 146), Justin Martyr (Apol. ii. 5, p. 92), Irenus (iii. 12. 11, p. 197), Athenagoras (Legat. 24, p. 302), and Clement of Alexandria (Strom. vii. 2, p. 831 P) in Whitby’s note. The idea then of subjection of the world to angels was one with which the readers of this Epistle were familiar) the world to come (the reference of this expression has been variously given by expositors. 1. Many imagine it to refer to the world which is, strictly speaking, to come , as distinguished from this present world. So Thdrt. ( . . ), c. ( . . , , . ), Cajetan, Estius, a-Lapide, al. This meaning, as Bl. remarks, will hardly tally with the , nor with : though it might be said that the future life, being the completion of the state of salvation by Christ, might very well here be spoken of as the subject of the present discourse. 2. Some have supposed a direct allusion to ch. Heb 1:6 . So Thl. ( , ), Schlichting, Grot. (“ , id est Respicitur enim id quod prcessit Heb 1:6 ”), Bhme, al. But certainly in this case the verb would have been past; and besides, the addition of the epithet sufficiently distinguishes it from the mere , the inhabited world, in the other place. 3. Others again have thought of the heaven, which is to us future, because we are not yet admitted to its joys. So Cameron (“Mundus ecclesi desertum est, ecclesi est in clo, sicut Israelitarum in terra Canaan”), Calov., Limborch, Grot. (“In regione illa supertherea sunt quidem angeli, sed non illi imperant ut Christus. Vocat hanc . ., non quia jam non exstat; sed quia nobis ea non plene nota est, nec adhuc contigit”), al. But this again would not agree with the and . 4. The most probable account to be given is that the phrase represents the Heb. (see note on ch. Heb 1:1 ), and imports the whole new order of things brought in by Christ, taking its rise in His life on earth, and having its completion in his reign in glory. So Calvin (“Nunc apparet non vocari orbem futurum duntaxat qualem e resurrectione speramus, sed qui cpit ab exordio regni Christi: complementum vero suum habebit in ultima redemptione”), Beza, Cappellus (adding a remark, “Sed nec contemnendum discrimen illud quod videmus inter veteris et novi testamenti scula, sub vetere Abraham, Josue, Daniel coram angelis procumbentes non reprehenduntur: sub novo Johannes idem bis faciens bis reprehenditur, Rev 19 et 22”). Chrys. and Thl. are commonly quoted for this view even by Bleek: but if I understand Chrys., he means, as Thl. certainly does, that the here is identical with that in ch. Heb 1:6 , and that the Writer calls it , because at the time of the divine decree here spoken of, it was not yet created: , , , . , . And nearly so Chrys., but not so plainly.
This last-mentioned view is by far the best, agreeing as it does with the connexion, for he has been speaking of the gospel above, with the usus loquendi, with the whole subject of the Epistle.
The word has by some been supposed to be used “ex prospectu veteris Test prophetico in Novum Test.,” as Bengel, who again says, “ Futurus dicitur, non quin jam sit, sed quia olim prdictus.” And so Bleek (as an additional reason why the word was used, besides that the completion of the state is yet to come), al. I should be disposed, standing as the expression does here without emphasis, to regard rather as a well-known and well-understood designation of the latter dispensation, here technically adjoined, than as requiring minute explanation in this place. All reference to the future need not be excluded: we Christians are so eminently “prisoners of hope,” that the very mention of such a designation would naturally awaken a thought of the glories to come: but this reference must not be pressed as having any prominence. With this latter view agrees in the main that of Delitzsch, which I have seen since this note was first written. He concurs with Hofmann, Weissag. u. Erf. ii. 23, in requiring a more concrete sense for the words, and understands them to point to the new world of Redemption, as distinguished from the old world of Creation, which by reason of sin is subject to death and decay. So that is not used from the O. T. standing-point, but from the N. T. also, and points to the times of the Messiah in their ideal perfection which shall one day be realized), of which we are speaking (which forms the subject of our present argument: viz. that urged in Heb 2:1-4 . The sense is strictly present ; not past (see Grot. above), nor future (“enallage temporis; de quo in sequenti testimonio loquemur,” as Vatablus). Bleek has here some excellent remarks: “As regards the whole thought, the non-subjection of the new order of the world to angels, it respects partly what is already present, partly what we have yet to wait for. Certainly, here and there in the N. T. history angels are mentioned: but they come in only as transitory appearances, to announce or to execute some matter which is specially entrusted to them: they never appear as essential agents in the introduction of the kingdom of God, either in general, or in particular: they do not descend on earth as preaching repentance, or preparing men to be received into God’s kingdom. This is done by men , first and chiefly by Him who is Son of Man , and after Him by the disciples whom He prepared for the work. Even the miraculous conversion of Paul is brought about not by angels, but by the appearing of the Lord Himself. Our author has indeed in ch. Heb 1:14 , designated the angels as fellow-workers in the salvation of men: but only in a serving capacity, never as working or imparting salvation by independent agency, as does the Son of Man in the first place, and then in a certain degree his disciples also. So that we cannot speak with any truth of a subjection of this new order of things to the angels. Rather, even by what we see at present, does it appear to be subjected to the Redeemer Himself. And this will ever more and more be the case; for, according to the prophetic declaration of the Psalm, the whole world shall be put under His feet ( Heb 2:8 ). Thus, by reminding them of the will of God declared in the holy Scriptures, does the Writer meet at the same time the objections of those of his readers and countrymen, to whom perhaps this withdrawal of the agency of the angels with the introduction and growing realization of the new order of things might appear an important defect”).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Heb 2:5-18 . Having sufficiently brought out the permanence and sovereignty of the Son by contrasting them with the fleeting personality and ministerial function of angels, the author now proceeds to bring the supremacy of the Son into direct relation to the Messianic administration of “the world to come,” the ideal condition of human affairs; and to explain why for the purposes of this administration it was needful and seemly that “the Lord” should for a season appear in a form “a little lower than the angels”. The world of men as it was destined to be [ ] was a condition of things in which man was to be supreme, not subject to any kind of slavery or oppression. And if the Jew asked why, in order to bring this about, the appearance of the Son in so apparently inglorious a form was necessary; if he asked why suffering and death on His part were necessary, the answer is, that it was God’s purpose to bring, not angels, but many human sons to glory and that as there is but one path, and that a path of suffering, by which men can reach their destiny, it was becoming that their leader should act as pioneer in this path. His path to glory must be a path in which men can follow Him; because it is from the human level and as man that He wins to glory. More particularly His sufferings accomplish two objects: they produce in Him the sympathy which qualifies Him as High Priest, while His death breaks the power which kept them enslaved and in fear. [On this section Robertson Smith’s papers in the Expositor , 1881 2, should be consulted.]
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Heb 2:5 . . “For not to angels”. With the writer proceeds to clinch the exhortation contained in Heb 2:1-4 , by exhibiting the ground of it. Under the old Covenant angels had been God’s messengers, but this mode of mediation has passed away. The is not subject to them. It is the Son as man who now rules and to whom attention must be given. “did He” that is God subject the world to come of which we are speaking, , not , but the inhabited world. So used in Diod. Sic., i. 8 . , wherever there were men. From the O.T. point of view “the world to come” meant the world under Messianic rule, but in this Epistle the Messianic Kingdom is viewed as not yet fully realised. The world to come is therefore the eternal order of human affairs already introduced and rendering obsolete the temporary and symbolic dispensation. Calvin accurately defines it thus: “Non vocari orbem futurum duntaxat, qualem e resurrectione speramus, sed qui coepit ab exordio regni Christi. Complementum vero suum habebit in ultima redemptione.” It is the present world of men regenerated, death and all that is inimical to human progress abolished; a condition in which all things are subjected to man. The repudiation of angels as lords of the world to come implies the admission that the obsolescent dispensation had been subject to them. So in Deu 32:8 : , cf. Dan 10:13-21 and Book of Jubilees , xv. 31. Cf. the pages in which Robertson Smith expands the remark that “to be subordinated” to the angelic dispensation is the same thing as to be “made under the law” ( Expositor , 1881, p. 144 ff.). Hermas ( Vis. , iii. 4, 1) represents the Church as being built by six angels whom he describes as being the first created , .
Heb 2:6 . : “but some one in a certain place solemnly testifies, saying”. The indefinite formula of quotation is used not because doubt existed regarding the authorship of the psalm, nor because the writer was citing from memory, but rather as a rhetorical mode of suggesting that his readers knew the passage well enough. So Chrysostom: , . Philo frequently uses an indefinite form of quotation: this identical form in De Ebriet. , 14 (Wendland, ii. 181) . Cf. Longinus, De Sub. , ix. 2 . Here only in the Epistle is a quotation from Scripture referred to its human author. . The quotation is from Psa 8 and extends to in Heb 2:8 . It illustrates the greatness of man in three particulars.
1. .
2. .
3. .
And the author goes on to say that in Jesus the two former elements of man’s greatness are seen to be fulfilled (He is made a little lower than the angels, and He is crowned with glory and honour), while the third is guaranteed because Jesus has tasted death for every man and so subdued even it, the last enemy, and therefore all things, under his feet.
In Psa 8 as in so many other poets and prose writers (see Pascal’s chapter on The Greatness and Littleness of Man , A. R. Wallace’s Man’s Place in the Universe and Fisk’s Destiny of Man ), it is the dignity put upon man which fills the writer with astonishment. When Sophocles in the Antigone celebrates man’s greatness, , he excepts death from subjection to man, . Here the Hebrew poet excepts nothing. But only by Christ was he justified. Man’s real place is first won by Christ. “Thou art mindful of him” for good as in Heb 13:3 . Man, the subject of satire and self-contempt, is the object of God’s thought. = of the first clause. In the Heb. and . “visit,” generally as a friend (Mat 25:36 , Jas 1:27 ) frequently of physician visiting sick; in judgment, Jer 5:9 ; Jer 5:29 . “The day of visitation,” , in good sense, Luk 19:44 ; for chastisement, Isa 10:3 ; cf. 1Pe 2:12 . In Jer 15:15 we have the two words .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Heb 2:5-9
5For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. 6But one has testified somewhere, saying,
“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
7You 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;
8You 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. 9But 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.
Heb 2:5 “For He did not subject to angels the world to come” It is true that angels are in a place of spiritual pre-eminence now (cf. Deu 32:8 in the Septuagint and the book of Daniel, chapter 10). However, in the world to come, it will be human beings, by means of their incarnate, glorified Savior, who will be in the place of authority. This is another comparison relating to the superiority of Jesus and His followers over the angels who were viewed as being involved in the Mosaic Covenant (cf. Heb 1:4-14).
Heb 2:6 “But one has testified somewhere saying” This is a Hebrew idiom for the inspiration of the entire OT, not a lapse of memory as to where these quotes are found (cf. Heb 4:4). There follows a series of OT quotes, which is common in Hebrews.
“What is man that you remember him” This is a quote from the Septuagint of Psa 8:4-6 based theologically on Gen 1:26; Gen 1:28. Heb 2:6-8 do not refer to the Messiah (“the Son of Man”), but to humanity. In the Psalm the term “son of man” is in a parallel relationship with the term “man” and should not be capitalized. It is a Hebrew idiom for humanity, ben adam, so common in Ezekiel (cf. Eze 2:1; Eze 3:1; Eze 3:3-4; Eze 3:10; Eze 3:17, etc.).
Heb 2:7 “you have made him for a little while lower than the angels” This is the continuation of the quote of Psa 8:5-6 from the Septuagint. The question for both translation and interpretation is, how should the Hebrew term “Elohim” be understood?
1. The Septuagint translated Psa 8:5 as “angels,” as did the Aramaic Targums and Pehsitta, Vulgate, and KJV translations.
2. The Jewish Publication Society of America translated it as “little less than divine.” Several English translations have “God” (cf. ASV, NASB, RSV, NEB, NRSV, REB, JB, NJB, TEV). The term, when used in the OT with a singular verb, like Gen 1:1, refers to God. Jesus used it in this sense in Joh 10:31-39. It is also used of the “gods” of the pagan nations. It can refer to angels in the sense of God’s heavenly council made up of Himself and angelic servants (cf. 1Ki 22:19; Dan 7:10).
3. There is even the possibility that it refers to the Judges of Israel (cf. Exo 21:6; Exo 22:8-9; Exo 22:28; Psa 82:1; Psa 82:6).
In this context the theological point is that Jesus and His followers (cf. Heb 1:14) are superior to the angels.
There is a Greek manuscript variation at the end of Heb 2:7. Some ancient Greek manuscripts ( , A, C, D*, P) continue to quote from Psa 8:7, but others stop at “You crowned him with glory and honor” (P46, B. Dc, K, L). As with so many of these variations, it makes no difference in the interpretation of the text.
SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY
“You crowned Him with Glory” see note at Heb 1:3.
Heb 2:8 This is from Psa 2:6, but is an allusion to Gen 1:26; Gen 1:28-30. Humans made in God’s image (cf. Gen 1:26-27) were to function as managers on earth (as God’s representatives). But the fall of Genesis 3 thwarted this purpose (cf. Heb 2:9 c).
Heb 2:9 “But we do see Him” The NASB has all of the pronouns in small letters in Heb 2:7-8 (i.e., the author quoting the Psalm), but in Heb 2:9 they are in capital letters (the author now applying the Psalm), thus comparing fallen mankind with the ideal Man. God placed mankind in an honored position of authority, but mankind sinned and forfeited that position. Jesus the Incarnate God fulfills humanity’s destiny and by His death restores believing mankind to the place of honor. Jesus was truly human! This is another Adam-Christ typology (cf. Rom 5:12-21; 1Co 15:21-22; 1Co 15:45-49; Php 2:6-11).
“who was made for a little while lower than the angels” This is an obvious comparison with Heb 2:6-7. It speaks of Jesus’ incarnation and life on earth.
“Jesus” The author of Hebrews characteristically uses “Jesus” without any additional description (cf. Heb 2:9; Heb 3:1; Heb 6:20; Heb 7:22; Heb 10:19; Heb 12:2; Heb 12:24; Heb 13:12). It is possible that this is a typological play on Jesus as the new Joshua. The names are exactly the same. The author of Hebrews uses the Exodus material extensively. As Joshua brought God’s people into the rest of the Promised Land, so too, will Jesus bring them into heaven (i.e., the seventh day rest).
“because of the suffering of death” This reflects Gen 3:15; Psalms 22; Isaiah 53. He was God’s Agent in redemption!
“crowned with glory and honor” This is a perfect passive participle. He has been and continues to be the crowned One! See note at Heb 1:3.
“by the grace of God” This translation (chariti Theos) is found in all English Bibles and is supported by the ancient Greek manuscripts (P46, , A, B, C, D). However, a curious reading “apart from God” (chris Theos), occurs in many later ancient texts. In A Textual Commentary On The Greek New Testament, Bruce M. Metzger says that this was originally a marginal gloss related to 1Co 15:27, which was misunderstood as a correction to “chariti Theos” (p. 664).
The United Bible Society’s A Handbook on the Letter to the Hebrews by Paul Ellingworth and Eugene A. Nida offers another opinion, that “apart from God” may allude to Psalms 22, which Jesus used to express His sense of being all alone on the cross (cf. Mar 15:34) p. 37. This same opinion is given by Myles M. Bourke in the Jerome Biblical Commentary (p. 385).
There is also a third option (taken from Bart D. Ehrman’s, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, Oxford Press, 1993, pp. 146-150) that scribes intentionally changed “apart from God” for theological reasons, specifically the theological threat of gnosticism.
This variant was known to Origen and Jerome. Also the word “apart” (chris) is used thirteen times in Hebrews, which shows this author’s tendency to use this term. Also according to Ehrman (p. 148), it always is followed by an anarthrous (no article) noun.
“He might taste death” It is important to realize that suffering was in the will of God for Jesus Christ (cf. Gen 3:15; Isa 53:4; Isa 53:10; Mar 10:45; 2Co 5:21). This theme of suffering continues in the OT quotes found in the remainder of chapter 2.
“for everyone” This context refers to the vicarious, substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ (cf. Isa 53:6; Rom 5:6; Rom 5:8; Rom 5:10; Rom 5:17-19; 1Co 15:22; 1Ti 2:4; 1Ti 2:6; 1Ti 4:10; Tit 2:11; 2Pe 3:9). Jesus died to deal with mankind’s sin problem. The only thing that keeps all humans from being saved is their unwillingness to accept God’s free gift in the finished work of Jesus Christ by faith (cf. Joh 3:17-21).
SPECIAL TOPIC: YHWH’s ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
For, &c. Read, “For not (App-105) to angels did He subject”.
unto = to.
world. Greek. oikoumene. App-129. Compare Heb 1:6.
whereof = concerning (Greek. peri App-104) which,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5-18.] The dogmatic argument now proceeds. The new world is subjected, by the testimony of the Scriptures, not to angels, but to Christ: who however, though Lord of all, was made inferior to the angels, that He might die for, and suffer with, being made like, the children of men.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Heb 2:5. , for not to angels) The tiology [assigning of a reason; Append.], referring to Heb 2:3, where the terms salvation and Lord are skilfully introduced, serves the purpose of beginning a new paragraph. The greater the salvation, and the more glorious the Lord, that are despised, the more aggravated is the offence of them who despise them. God subjected both angels and all things, not to the angels, of whom nothing was written to that effect [implying any such intention], but to man, or the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. The angels had more to do in the Old Testament; but in the New Testament, when human nature was exalted by Christ, the angels are our fellow-servants. I ventured to say, more to do; and it may be also supposed from the antithesis, that greater reverence was due to the angels in the Old Testament than in the New Testament, where they are now our fellow-servants. And from this very circumstance, that they are our fellow-servants, we understand that they are not inactive under the New Testament, but merely that they act under a different relation from that under which they acted under the Old Testament. As in this passage angels are opposed to the Lord, so Heb 2:16, they are opposed to the brethren [Heb 2:11-12]. The apostle couples believers alone with Christ alone.-, subjected) This verb is now brought forward at once from the eighth verse. God subjected; for the language refers to ch. Heb 1:1.- , the world to come) There is but one earth, , belonging to all times, ch. Heb 1:6. Therefore the expression, the world to come, is used as we say to-morrows sun, although there is but the one sun of all days. in Hebrew is expressed by in Greek. The world is one (and the same world), under grace and under glory; the epithet, to come, is added to it, not because it is not already existing, but because it was formerly predicted. The newness which was introduced by Christ in the New Testament is considered of so much importance in Scripture, that there arises from it a twofold division (dichotomia), viz. between the times of the Old and those of the New Testament, with one and the same eternity depending upon them. These latter taken together are called , the world to come. They are ever and anon , about to come, when regarded from the Old Testament point of view, which prophetically looks forward to the New Testament; but in the New Testament they are present Good things, obtained by Christ; which commence while the world to come is in the course of being subjected to Him, at the time when first He was crowned with glory and honour. Concerning this expression of Paul, comp. note at Rom 3:30. Although, even in reference to the time of this epistle, it is to come, , in its own way, viz. at the time when all things shall be made subject to Christ, even including death, 1Co 15:24-25. Consider the not yet, Heb 2:8, and the actual description of the world to come, ch. Heb 12:26, etc. The noun, world, is of very wide meaning. See the psalm which is presently quoted. , Pater futuri seculi, Isa 9:6, in the Greek and Latin versions; the Father of the world to come; in our translation, the everlasting Father.- , of which we speak) We speak, we teachers, ch. Heb 5:11, note. By this clause the force of a proposition is obtained for [is imparted to] this short verse. And the proposition is, all things shall be subjected to Jesus Christ.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Heb 2:5-18
SECTION TWO
Heb 2:5-18
ANALYSIS
The main object of the Apostle in this section is to encourage the believing Hebrews to persevere in their Christian course, by presenting to them sundry motives drawn chiefly from the humanity of Christ; from his oneness with us, and his great love, condescension, sympathy, and sufferings for us.
Having presented the origin and greatness of the salvation that is offered to us in the Gospel, as a reason why we should give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, the Apostle now passes with consummate skill to the consideration of some other matters looking in the same direction. He insists particularly that we should give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard:
I. Because, he says, it is through the man Jesus and that system of grace of which he is author and the finisher, that we will regain our lost dominion over the world (Heb 2:5-9).
When man was created, God said to him, Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth. (Gen. 1: 28.)
But in consequence of sin, man has, in a great measure, lost this dominion. (Gen. 3: 15-24.) Satan for a time got possession of this world (Psalm 68: 18; John 12: 31; 14: 30; 16: 11; 2 Cor. 4: 4; Eph. 2: 2; 1 John 5: 19; Rev. 12: 9) ; and by his cunning artifice and hellish malice, he not only enslaved man, but actually turned many of the elements of the world against him. Even the worm and the insect now luxuriate on his fallen remains.
That this state of things is, however, only temporary, and that, according to Gods purpose, man will again have at his command the dominion of the world, is manifest from the eighth Psalm, in which David says, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet^; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
From this passage, then, it is quite evident that God intends that man shall possess and hold the world as his lawful and rightful patrimony. But this, says Paul, has not yet been accomplished : We do not yet see all things put under him.
But what do we see? We see Jesus, says he, who was made a little lower than the angels, so that he by the grace of God might taste death for every man, crowned with glory and honor for the suffering of death. All things are put under him as our Leader and Captain. And this is therefore to us a sure pledge that in due time the dominion of the world will be restored to man; that he will enjoy the whole habitable Earth as his home, and that he will rule over it as his rightful patrimony, even as Adam ruled over Eden before he fell.
II. But just here arises another thought that requires further development and illustration; the consideration of which occupies the remainder of this section (Heb 2:10-18). The Apostle has said in the ninth verse that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, so that he by the grace of God might taste death for every man. The question, then, naturally occurs here, Why was this? Why did the Logos assume a nature that is a little lower than that of the angels, with the view of tasting death for every man ?
1. The reason assigned by our author is, that it became God the Father, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings (Heb 2:10). The full meaning of this remark he does not stop to develop. But in the light of what follows in this section, and what is clearly taught in many parallel passages, it is evident-
(1.) That this was required by the nature and government of God. Without an atonement adequate to meet and satisfy all the claims of Divine Justice against man, there could be no pardon; no emancipation from the dominion of sin and Satan; no recovery of mans lost dominion over the world; and of course no bringing of many sons unto glory.
(2.) This was required by the nature, wants, and circumstances of mankind. None but a suffering, bleeding, dying Savior, uniting in his own person all the elements of humanity, as well as all the attributes of Divinity, could take hold of the affections and so control the hearts and lives of men as to bring them back again to God, and make it possible for him to restore to them their forfeited inheritance.
(3.) When Christ became a man, it was then necessary that, as a man, he should be educated and qualified for the great work that was before him. He had to grow in knowledge and in experience, like other men. (Luk 2:52.) And hence we see that it became God to make Jesus perfect through sufferings-(a) with reference to the claims of his own government on man; (b) with reference to the condition and wants of mankind; and (c) with reference to the educational wants and requirements of Christs human nature.
1. And now to show that this was no new device, but that God had so decreed from the beginning, the Apostle makes sundry quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures, clearly demonstrating that even under the Law, it was Gods revealed purpose that the Messiah should be one with his brethren (Heb 2:11-13).
2. And hence it was that, in harmony with Gods ancient purpose, the Logos became flesh; and thus, as a man, was made a little lower than the angels; so that by his death he might be able (1) to destroy Satan, who has the power of death; and (2) that he might deliver those who had been made captives by Satan, and who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:14-15).
3. The necessity of Christs being made a little lower than the angels by becoming a man-a suffering, bleeding, sorrowful man -is still further amplified and illustrated by the fact that he came to help fallen men, and not angels. And hence it behooved him to become like unto his brethren in all things (sin only excepted), so that, as their officiating High Priest, he may the more readily and fully sympathize with them in all their trials, temptations, and sufferings (Heb 2:16-18)
This section, therefore, comprises the two following subdivisions :
I. Heb 2:5-9. Mans lost dominion over the world to be restored through Jesus.
II. Heb 2:10-18. Why the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The apostle in these verses proceeds in the pursuit of his former design. From the doctrine of the first chapter, he presseth the exhortation at the beginning of this, which we have passed through. The foundation of that exhortation was the pre-eminence of the Lord Christ, the author of the gospel, above the angels by whom the law was spoken and delivered. This he now further confirms, and that by an instance suited to his present purpose, and not as yet by him insisted on. And he doth it the rather because, by the testimonies wherewith he proves his assertion, he is led to the consideration of other concernments of the mediation of Christ, which he thought meet to declare unto these Hebrews also. And this method he is constant unto throughout this whole epistle. In the midst of his reasonings and testimonies for the explanation or confirmation of what he delivers dogmatically, he lays hold on some occasion or other to press his exhortations unto faith, obedience, with constancy and perseverance in the profession of the gospel. And in the arguments which he interweaveth, and testimonies which he produceth for the enforcement of his exhortations, something still offers itself, which accordingly he lays hold upon, leading him to some further explication of the doctrine which he had in hand; so insensibly passing from one thing unto another, that he might at the same time inform the minds and work upon the affections of them with whom he dealt. All which will appear in our ensuing exposition of these verses.
Heb 2:5. ,
, subjecit, in ordinem coegit, put into subjection, brought into order, under rule. , Vul., orbem terrae futurum, the habitable earth to come; Arias, habitatam futuram, to the same purpose, improperly; Syr., , mundum, or seculum futurum, the world (or age) to come; Beza, mundum illum futurum, that world to come. And indeed the repetition of the article, with the words following, concerning which we speak, requires that it be so expressed, That world to come, or the world that is to come. , Hebrew, . So most commonly expressed by the LXX.; as sometimes, though seldom, by , the earth; and sometimes by , the things under the heavens. The apostle useth this word from Psalms 8, where it denotes a mixture of inhabitants, there described. , that is, , concerning which we treat, about which we reason. The Vulgar Latin adds Deus to the text: Deus non subjecit, God hath not put in subjection; needlessly, as is acknowledged. De quo Christo, saith the interlinear gloss; but
is not of Christ.
Heb 2:5. For unto the angels hath he not made subject that world to come whereof we speak [concerning which we treat].
Heb 2:6. , ; , ;
Syr., , But as the Scripture witnesseth and saith; needlessly limiting what was spoken indefinitely by the apostle, the words themselves declaring who spake them and where. , Vul., in quodam loco, in a certain place ; Beza, alicubi, somewhere, that is, Psa 8:5. ; , quid homo mortalis? , , frail, mortal man, or the son of man. , filius hominis terreni; , e terra editus, man of the earth, or an earthy man.
Heb 2:6. But one [a certain man] testified [hath witnessed], in a certain place [somewhere, that is, in the Scripture, from whence he is arguing], saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Heb 2:7. , , .
The latter words, which are commonly placed at the beginning of the eighth verse, I have added unto this seventh, the sense and Hebrew text so requiring it.
. So the apostle renders in the psalmist, and that properly. Vul., minuisti; which is not thou hast made less, but thou hast lessened, which hath another sense than that here intended. Syr, , depressiti, thou hast depressed, or made him less, or lower than he was. Beza, fecisti eum inferiorem, thou hast made him lower; and so ours. Rhemists, thou didst minish him a little less; obscurely. is imminuo, diminuo, to make less, to take from, as to state and condition. So in Isocrates, is to lessen the dignity, state, and condition of the people; as in Latin, capitis diminutio is lessening of state or dignity, as by loss of liberty. For when one was made a captive by the enemy he lost his dignity, until he recovered it jure postliminii; so Regulus is termed by the poet, capitis minor, when a prisoner to the Carthaginians: or by change of family, as when Clodius, a patrician, was adopted by a plebeian: or by banishment. All such are , lessened in state or dignity. , the word used by the psalmist, hath the same signification; and though it be variously rendered by the LXX., yet they never much depart from its native signification. , to minish, make less, take from; , the same; , to become indigent; , to be in want; , , all to the same purpose; , to deprive; , to want, to be indigent, to come short; and , and , to make empty ; that is, , the word used Php 2:7. I observe this various rendering of the word by the LXX. only to show that it doth constantly denote a diminution of state and condition, with an addition of indigency; which will give us light into the interpretation of the p]ace.
, breve quiddam; Vul., paulo minus; Syr., , paululum, a little, or paulisper, a little while. is frequently by the LXX. rendered , parvum, paululum, a little, intending quantity; sometimes , which they refer to number, a few; and sometimes , and then it constantly respects time, a little while. So that is as much as , that is ; as in that saying, , , Life is short, that is, of short continuance. Whether a little in degree or a short time be here intended we shall afterwards inquire.
, Syr. , prae angelis, more than angels, above the angels, more destitute than the angels; Hebrew, , the angels of God. So all old translations render the words. And to render it a Deo, in the psalm, is needless, groundless, contradictory to the apostle.
, gloria et honore coronasti eum, with glory and honor hast thou crowned him; Syr., , glory and honor hast thou placed on his head; Heb. thou hast crowned him (or adorned his head) with glory and beauty, or honor. The first word denotes the weight and worth, the latter the beauty and splendor of this crown.
, thou hast set him over; that is, appointed him to be in authority, as Pharaoh set Joseph over the land of Egypt. Syr., , authoritatem, potestatem ei tribuisti; thou hast given him power, or authority; made him sultan, or lord. Heb., , made him lord, or ruler, as Gen 1:18. So is used, Acts 6, Luke 12.
, hast put put down, subjected all things under his feet. The words all of them emphatically denote subjection and depression, and as thus conjoined, the most absolute subjection that can be apprehended.
Heb 2:7. Thou madest him lower for a little while than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him [gave him authority] over the works of thy hands: all things hast thou put in subjection under his feet.
Heb 2:8. , .
Heb 2:8. For in that he made all things subject unto him, he hath left nothing not put in subjection; but now we see not all things made subject unto him.
Heb 2:9. , , . The words of this have most of them been considered in the , and they must have the same sense in both places, or the reasoning of the apostle would be equivocal. For , some old copies read, , besides God, God excepted. The Syriac copies also vary. Some read, For God himself by his grace tasted death. Others, For he, God excepted, tasted death; which came from , and shows that variety to be ancient. Hence some have imagined it to be a corruption of the Nestorians, who, dividing the person of Christ, would not grant that God might be said to die, contrary to Act 20:28. , is gratia, beneficentia, beneficio Dei, by the grace, goodness, good-will of God, expressing the first spring and moving cause of the sufferings of Christ. , should taste of death; an Hebraism for to die, intimating withal the truth, reality, and kind of his death, which was bitter, and which was called his cup. , in the masculine, not neuter gender, for , by an enallage of number, that is, , of whom he treats; all and every one of the children unto whom he was a captain of salvation. [2]
[2] VARIOUS READINGS. The clause, usque , Act 20:7, is omitted by Griesbach, Scholz, and Tischendorf. Knapp, Lachmann, and Hahn enclose it within brackets, as doubtful. TRANSLATIONS. . For a little while. Valckenaer, De Wette, Conybeare and Howson, Ebrard. A little (in respect of degree). Stuart, Scholefield, Olshausen, Turner. ED.
Heb 2:9. But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, who for the suffering of death was a little while made lower than the angels, that he by the grace of God might taste of death for all.
Heb 2:5. The first words of the fifth verse, , for, declare that the apostle is in the pursuit of his former argument. for, doth not always intimate the introduction of a reason in the confirmation of what is past, but sometimes a progression unto somewhat else in the like kind with that which precedeth, and so hath not respect unto any especial words or sayings going before, but unto the whole matter in hand, especially that which doth ensue; as nam also is used in Latin: Nam quis tejuvenum confidentissime, nostras jussit adire domos. A new argument, therefore, to the same purpose with that before is intimated by this particle, for.
The whole verse contains an assertion laid down in a negative proposition, the assumption of the apostles argument, or the proof of it, supposed in a prosyllogism, consisting in the ensuing testimony, with his explication of it. And it is to this purpose: The world to come is not made subject unto angels; but it was made subject to Jesus: and therefore he is exalted above them.This he proves from the testimony of the psalmist, to this purpose,
All things were made subject to man, who for a little while was made lower than the angels; but this man was Jesus.And this assumption he proves from the event:
First, On the part of man absolutely considered: We see that all things are not made subject unto him;therefore he cannot be intended.
Secondly, On the part of Jesus. All things in the event agree unto him; first, he was made for a little while lower than the angels, (which he shows the reason of, and thence takes occasion to discourse of his death and sufferings, according to the method before declared;) and then he was crowned with glory and dignity, all things being made subject unto him; from all which it appears, that it is he, and not angels, unto whom the world to come is put in subjection.This is the series of the apostles discourse, wherein are many things difficult and hard to be understood, which must be particularly considered.
The first verse, as was said, lays down the principal assertion in negative proposition: The world to come is not made subject unto angels. One proof hereof is included in the words themselves; for that expression, He hath not put in subjection, is the same with our apostle as, It is nowhere written or recorded in the Scripture,There is no testimony of it,God is nowhere said to have done it. See Heb 1:5, with the exposition of it.
And these negative arguments from the authority of the Old Testament he esteemed in this matter cogent and sufficient.
In the proposition itself,
1. The subject of it, The world to come; with
2. Its limitation, Whereof we treat; and
3. The predicate, negatively expressed, Is not put in subjection to angels, are to be considered.
The subject of the proposition is, The world to come ( the new heavens and new earth (), which God promised to create, Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22; which refers unto , the days of the Messiah. The later Jews sometimes call it , the future world, though usually by that expression they intend the world of future bliss. But the world here intended is no other but the promised state of the church under the gospel. This, with the worship of God therein, with especial relation unto the Messiah, the author and mediator of it, administering its heavenly things before the throne of grace, thereby rendering it spiritual and heavenly, and diverse from the state of the worship of the old testament, which was worldly and carnal, was the world to come that the Jews looked for, and which in this place is intended by the apostle. This we must further confirm, as the foundation of the ensuing exposition. That this then, is the intendment of the apostle appeareth,
First, From the limitation annexed, , concerning which we treat. This is the world whereof he treats with the Hebrews in this epistle, namely, the gospel state of the church, the worship whereof he had in the words immediately foregoing pressed them unto the observation of; and not only so, but described it also by that state wherein the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were given and enjoyed. And the mention of them in the words directly preceding is that description of the world to come which the apostle in these words refers unto, concerning which we speak. And the tradition of this new world, or the restoration of all things under the Messiah, was one of the principal reports of truth received among the Jews, which the apostle presseth them withal.
Some suppose that , we speak, is put for , we have spoken, and would have it refer unto Heb 1:6. But what the apostle there intendeth by the world we have sufficiently evinced and declared. The world there, by a usual synecdoche, is put for the habitable earth, the , which the Son of God made and came unto, Joh 1:11. Here, a certain state and condition of things in the world, about which he treated with the Hebrews, is intended.
Besides, they who would thus change the word (Grotius, Crellius, Schlichtingius), by the world, Heb 1:6, understand heaven itself, the state of glory, which is not here insisted on by the apostle; for,
Secondly, He treats of that which was already done, in the crowning of Jesus with glory and honor, as the words following do manifest. This crowning of him was upon his ascension, as we have before proved at large. Then was not the state of glory made subject unto him, because it was not then nor is yet in being. And, therefore, they who turn we speak into we have before spoken, are forced also to pervert the following words, and to interpret, He hath made all things subject unto him, He hath purposed or decreed so to do; both without cause or reason. The world whereof the apostle treats was immediately made subject to Jesus, that is, the church of the new testament, when God anointed him king upon his holy hill of Zion; and therefore in the psalm is there mention made of those other parts of the creation, to be joined in this subjection, that have no relation unto heaven.
Thirdly, The apostle doth not treat directly anywhere in this epistle concerning heaven, or the world of the blessed to come. He frequently mentions heaven, not absolutely, indeed, but as it belongs unto the gospel world, as being the place of the constant residence of the high priest of the church, and wherein also the worship of it is through faith celebrated.
Fourthly, The apostle in these words insists on the antithesis which he pursueth in his whole discourse between the Judaical and evangelical church-state; for whatever power angels might have in and over things formerly, this world to come, saith he, is not made subject unto them. Now, it is not heaven and glory that he opposeth to the Judaical church-
state and worship, but that of the gospel, as we shall find in the progress of the epistle; which is therefore necessarily here intended.
Fifthly, If by the world to come, the eternal, blessed state of glory be designed, to begin at or after the general judgment, then here is a promise that that blessed estate shall de nove be put in subjection to Jesus Christ as mediator; but this is directly contrary unto what is elsewhere revealed by the same apostle, concerning the transactions between the Father and the Son as mediator at that day, 1Co 15:28 :
And when all shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all;
which words, if they do not absolutely assert the ceasing of the kingdom of the mediator, but only the order of all things unto eternity in their subjection unto God by Christ, yet they are plainly exclusive of the grant of a new power or authority unto him, or of a new making subject of all things unto him. Add unto all this, that the apostle proves the subjection of this world unto the Lord Christ, and not unto angels, by a testimony expressing directly the present things of this world, antecedent unto the day of judgment, From what hath been discoursed, we conclude that the world to come, here expressed, is the state and worship of the church under the Messiah, called so by the apostle, according to the usual appellation which then it had obtained among the Jews, and allowed by him until the Mosaical church-state was utterly removed. And he afterwards declares how this comprised heaven itself also, because of the residence of our high priest in the holiest not made with hands, and the continual admission of the worshippers unto the throne of grace. This is the subject of the apostles proposition, that concerning which he treats.
Concerning this world the apostle first declares negatively, that it is not made subject unto angels. The subjecting of this world to come unto any, is such a disposal of it as that he or they unto whom it is put in subjection should, as the lord of it, erect, institute, or set it up, rule and dispose of it being erected, and judge and reward it in the end of its course and time. This is denied concerning angels, and the denial proved tacitly, because no such thing is testified in the Scripture. And herein the apostle either preventeth an objection that might arise from the power of the angels in and over the church of old, as some think, or rather proceeds in his design of exalting the Lord Jesus above them, and thereby prefers the worship of the gospel before that prescribed by the law of Moses: for he seems to grant that the old church and worship were in a sort made subject unto angels; this of the world to come being solely and immediately in his power who in all things was to have the pre-eminence. And this will further appear if we consider the instances before mentioned wherein the subjection of this world to come unto any doth consist.
First, It was not put in subjection unto angels in its erection or institution. That work was not committed unto them, as the apostle declares in the entrance of this epistle. They did not reveal the will of God concerning it, nor were intrusted with authority to erect it. Some of them, indeed, were employed in messages about its preparatory work, but they were not employed either to reveal the mysteries of it, wherewith they were unacquainted, nor authoritatively in the name of God to erect it. For the wisdom of God in the nature and mystery of this work, they knew not but by the effects in the work itself, Eph 3:9-10, which they looked and inquired into, to learn and admire, 1Pe 1:12; and therefore could not be intrusted with authority for its revelation, and the building of the church thereon. But things were otherwise of old. The law, which was the foundation of the Judaical church-state, was given by the disposition of angels, Act 7:53, Gal 3:19; and our apostle here calls it the word spoken by angels. They were therefore intrusted by God to give the law and the ordinances of it unto the people in his name and authority; which being the foundation of the Mosaical church-state, it was so far put in subjection unto them.
Secondly, It is not put in subjection unto angels as to the rule and disposal of it being erected. Their office in this world is a ministry, Heb 1:14, not a rule or dominion. Rule in or over the church they have none, but are brought into a co-ordination of service with them that have the testimony of Jesus, Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9; being equally with us subjected unto him, in whom they and we are gathered into one head, Eph 1:10. And from their ministerial presence in the congregations of believers doth our apostle press women unto modesty and sobriety in their habit and deportment, 1Co 11:10. And the church of old had an apprehension of this truth, of the presence of an angel or angels in their assemblies, but so as to preside in them. Hence is that caution relating to the worship of God, Ecc 5:5-6 :
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
By vowing and not paying, a man brought upon his flesh, that is, himself and his posterity, a guilt not to be taken away with excuses of haste or precipitation made unto the angel presiding in their worship, to take an account of its due performance. It is true, the absolute sovereign power over the church of old was in the Son of God alone; but an especial, immediate power over it was committed unto angels. And hence was the name of , god, judge, mighty one, communicated unto them, namely, from their authority over the church; that name expressing the authority of God when unto him ascribed. And because of this, their acting in the name and representing the authority of God, the saints of old had an apprehension that upon their seeing of an angel they should die, from that saying of God, that none should see his face and live, Exo 33:20. So Manoah expressly, Jdg 13:22. He knew that it was an angel which appeared unto him, and yet says to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen , an angel vested with the authority of God. And hence it is not unlikely but that there might be a respect or worship due unto the angels under the old testament, which themselves declare not to be meet for them under the new, Revelation 19; not that they are degraded from any excellency or privilege which before they enjoyed, but that the worshippers under the new testament, through their relation unto Christ, and the exaltation of their nature in his person, are delivered from that underage estate, wherein they differed not from servants, Gal 4:1, and are advanced into an equality of liberty with the angels themselves, Heb 12:22-24, Eph 1:10; Eph 3:14-15; as amongst men there may be a respect due from an inferior to a superior, which may cease when he is advanced into the same condition with the other, though the superior be not at all abased. And to this day the Jews contend that angels are to be adored with some kind of adoration, though they expressly deny that they are to be invocated or prayed unto. Furthermore, about their power and authority in the disposal of the outward concernments of the church of old, much more might be declared from the visions of Zechariah and Daniel, with their works in the two great typical deliverances of it from Egypt and Babylon. But we must not here insist on particulars.
Thirdly, As to the power of judging and rewarding at the last day, it is openly manifest that God hath not put this world to come in subjection unto angels, but unto Jesus alone.
This, then, is the main proposition that the apostle proceeds upon in his present argument. The most glorious effect of the wisdom, power, and grace of God, and that wherein all our spiritual concernments here are enwrapped, consists in that blessed church-state, with the eternal consequences of it, which, having been promised from the foundation of the world, was now to be erected in the days of the Messiah. That you may,saith he, no more cleave unto your old institutions, because given out unto you by angels, nor hanker after such works of wonder and terror as attended their disposition of the law in the wilderness, consider that this world, so long expected and desired, this blessed estate, is not on any account made subject unto angels, or committed unto their disposal, the honor thereof being entirely reserved for another.
Having thus fixed the true and proper sense of this verse, we may stop here a little, to consult the observations that it offers for our own instruction. Many things in particular might be hence educed, but I shall insist on one only, which is comprehensive of the design of the apostle, and it is, That this is the great privilege of the church of the gospel, that, in the things of the worship of God, it is made subject unto and immediately depends upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on any other, angels or men.
That this is the privilege thereof, and that it is a great and blessed privilege, will appear both in our consideration of what it is and wherein it doth consist. And, among many other things, these ensuing are contained therein:
1. That the Lord Christ is our head. So it was promised of old that their king should pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them, Mic 2:13. He shall be their king, head, and ruler. God hath now gathered all things, all the things of his church, into a head in Christ, Eph 1:10. They were all scattered and disordered by sin, but are now all re-collected and brought into order under one head. Him hath he given to be head over all things to the church, Eph 1:22. The whole sovereignty over all the whole creation, that is committed unto him, is only for this end, that he may be the more perfect and glorious head to the church. He is that head on which the whole body hath its orderly and regular dependence, Eph 4:15-16; The head of the body, the church, Col 1:18; The head of every man, that is, of every believer, 1Co 11:3, Eph 5:23. And this is everywhere proposed both as our great honor and our great advantage. To be united unto him, subjected unto him as our head, gives us both honor and safety. What greater honor can we have, than to be freemen of that corporation whereof he is the head, than to be subjects of his kingdom? what greater safety, than to be united unto him inseparably who is in glory invested with all power and authority over the whole creation of God, every thing that may do us good or evil ?
2. That he is our only head. The church is so put in subjection unto the Lord Christ as not to be subject unto any other. It is true, the members of the church, as men on the earth, have other relations, in respect whereof they are or may be subject one to another, children unto parents, servants unto masters, people unto rulers; but as they are members of the church, they are subject unto Christ, and none other. If any other were or might be a head unto them, they must be angels or men. As for angels, we have it here plainly testified that the church is not made subject in any thing unto them. And amongst men, the apostles of all others might seem to lay the justest claim to this privilege and honor; but they openly disclaim any pretense thereunto. So doth Paul, 2Co 1:24, We have no dominion, rule, lordship, headship, over your faith, any thing that concerns your obedience to God, and your worship; but are helpers of your joy. And again saith he, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, the only Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesussake, 2Co 4:5. And Peter, as it should seem, foreseeing that some who should come after would pretend unto such pre-eminence, warns the elders that they should not think themselves lords over Gods heritage, 1Pe 5:3. And this they did in pursuit of the instructions and charge which their Lord and Master gave them, Mat 20:25-27, where he warns them that they should neither think of dignity nor dominion over the church, but apply themselves with all humility unto the service of it; for which he elsewhere adds his reason, namely, that all his disciples have one Lord and Master, and no more, Joh 13:13, Mat 23:8; Mat 23:10. And it is a woeful confusion that the Papists run themselves into in this matter; for, first, they put the whole church into subjection unto a man, whom they call the Pope, the common father and master of Christians, the head of the church and then subject both him and it unto angels, in the adoration and invocation of them, the greatest subjection possible; when the Scripture assigneth one only head of the church expressly, even the Lord Jesus, and fully declares that it is not put in subjection unto angels at all. But to pass them by, the Lord Christ is not only thus the only head in general unto the whole church, but also unto every individual believer in the church: The head of every man is Christ, 1Co 11:8. He is so to every believer respectively and severally; and that in both those senses wherein he is a head, that is, according to the natural and metaphorical use of the word. For,
(1.) He is the only head of vital influence to the whole church and every member thereof. As from the natural head all influences of life, for subsistence, motion, acting, guidance, and direction, are communicated unto the whole body and to every member thereof; so from the Lord Christ alone, as he is the spiritually vital head of the church, in whom are the springs of life and all quickening grace, there are communicated unto the whole church, and every believer therein, both the first quickening vital principle of life itself and all succeeding supplies and influences of grace, for the enlivening, strengthening, acting, guiding, and directing of them. This himself declares, by comparing the relation of all believers unto him unto that of branches unto the vine, Joh 15:2; Joh 15:4; which have no life but by virtue of their union unto the vine, nor sap for fruitfulness but what is derived therefrom; which he teacheth expressly, Joh 15:5, Without me, saith he, ye can do nothing. And this the apostle lively sets out unto us in the similitude of the natural body, Col 2:19. And this placing of all fullness in the Lord Christ, as the head of the church, that thence the whole and every member of it might derive needful supplies to themselves, is fully taught us in the gospel. Hence the church is called the fullness of Christ, Eph 1:23; or that whereunto Christ communicates of his all-fullness of grace, until it come unto the measure or degree of growth and perfection which he hath graciously assigned unto it. And none, I suppose, will contend but that the Lord Christ is the alone and only head of the church in this sense. It hath not a spiritual dependence on any other for grace. There is, indeed, I know not what monster lies in the opinion of them who take upon themselves to confer grace upon others, by virtue of such things as they do unto them or for them; but this we do not now consider. If any man think he may have grace from any but Christ alone, be they angels or men, let him turn himself unto them, but withal know assuredly that he forsakes the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns,which will yield him no relief.
(2.) He is the only head of rule and government unto the whole church, and every member thereof. This rule or government of the church concerneth all that obedience which it yields unto God in his worship. And unto a head herein it is required that he give perfect rules and laws for all things necessarily belonging thereunto, and take care that they be observed. And here a great contest ariseth in the world. The Papists, in behalf of their pope and others under him, contend to be sharers with the Lord Christ in this his headship; and fain they would persuade us that he himself hath appointed that so it should be. The Scripture tells us that he was faithful in the whole house of God, as was Moses, and that as a lord over his own house, to erect, rule, and establish it. And himself, when he gives commission unto his apostles, bids them to teach men to do and observe all that he had commanded them; and accordingly they tell us that they delivered unto us what they received from the Lord, and command us not to be wise above what is written. But I know not how it is come to pass that these men think that the Lord Christ is not a complete head in this matter, that he hath not instituted all rules and laws that are needful and convenient for the right discharge of the worship of God and obedience of the church therein; at least., that somewhat may be added unto what he hath appointed, that may be much to the advantage of the church. And this they take to be their work, by virtue of I know not what unsealed warrant, unwritten commission. But to add any thing in the worship of God unto the laws of the church, is to exercise authority over it, dominion over its faith, and to pretend that this world to come, this blessed gospel church-state, is put in subjection unto them, although it be not so to angels; a vain and proud pretense, as at the last day it will appear. But you will say, Christ gives his laws only unto his whole church, and not to individual believers, who receive them from the church; and so he is not an immediate head unto every one in particular.I answer, that the Lord Christ commits his laws unto the churchs ministry to teach them unto believers; but his own authority immediately affects the soul and conscience of every believer. He that subjects himself aright unto them doth it not upon the authority of the church, by whom they are taught and declared, but upon the authority of Christ, by whom they are given and enacted.
3. It appears from hence that as he is our only head, so he is our immediate head. We have our immediate dependence upon him, and our immediate access unto him. He hath, indeed, appointed means for the communicating of his grace unto us, and for the exercising of his rule and authority over us. Such are all his ordinances, with the offices and officers that he hath appointed in his church; the first whereof he requires us to be constant in the use of, the latter he requires our obedience and submission unto. But these belong only unto the way of our dependence, and hinder not but that our dependence is immediate on himself, he being the immediate object of our faith and love. The soul of a believer rests not in any of these things, but only makes use of them to confirm his faith in subjection unto Christ: for all these things are ours, they are appointed for our use, and we are Christs, as he is Gods, 1Co 3:21-23. And so have we our immediate access unto him, and not, as some foolishly imagine, by saints and angels, and by him to God, even to the throne of grace.
4. This privilege is greatly augmented, in that the church being made subject unto Christ alone, and cast into a dependence upon him, he will assuredly take care of all its concernments, seeing unto him only doth it betake itself. The church made it of old part of her plea that she was as one fatherless, Hos 14:3; that is, every way helpless, that had none to relieve or succor her. And the Lord Christ giveth this as a reason why he stirreth up himself unto the assistance of his people, because there was no man that appeared for their help, no intercessor to interpose for them, Isa 59:16. Now, God having placed the church in this condition, as to be ofttimes altogether orphans in this world, to have none to give them the least countenance or assistance; and the church itself choosing this condition, to renounce all hopes and expectations from any else beside, betaking itself unto the power, grace, and faithfulness of the Lord Christ alone; it cannot but as it were be a great obligation upon him to take care of it, and to provide for it at all times. They are members of his body, and he alone is their head; they are subjects of his kingdom, and he alone is their king; they are children and servants in his family, and he alone is their father, lord, and master; and can he forget them, can he disregard them? Had they been committed to the care of men, it may be some of them would have fought and contended for them, though their faithfulness is always to be suspected, and their strength is a thing of nought; had they been put into subjection unto angels, they would have watched for their good, though their wisdom and ability be both finite and limited, so that they could never have secured their safety: and shall not the Lord Jesus Christ, now they are made his special care, as his power and faithfulness are infinitely above those of any mere creature, excel them also in care and watchfulness for our good? And all these things do sufficiently set out the greatness of that privilege of the church which we insist upon. And there are two things that make this liberty and exaltation of the church necessary and reasonable :
1. That God having exalted our nature, in the person of his Son, into a condition of honor and glory, so as to be worshipped and adored by all the angels of heaven, it was not meet or convenient that it should in our persons, when united unto Christ as our head, be made subject unto them. God would not allow, that whereas there is the strictest union between the head and the members, there should be such an interposition between them as that the angels should depend on their head, and the members should depend on angels; which indeed would utterly destroy the union and immediate intercourse that is and ought to be between them.
2. God is pleased by Jesus Christ to take us into a holy communion with himself, without any other medium or means of communication but only that of our nature, personally and inseparably united unto his own nature in his Son. And this also our subjection unto angels is inconsistent withal. This order of dependence the apostle declares, 1Co 3:22-23, All things are yours; and ye are Christs; and Christ is Gods As there is no interposition between God and Christ, no more is there between Christ and us, and in and by him alone do we relate unto God himself. And this should teach us,
(1.) The equity and necessity of our universal obedience unto God in Christ. He hath freed us from subjection unto men and angels, that we might serve him and live unto him. He hath taken us to be his peculiar ones, his lot and portion, from whom he expects all his revenue of glory out of this world. And he hath left us no pretense, no excuse, for the neglect of any duties of obedience that he requireth of us. We cannot plead that we had other work to do, other lords and masters to serve; he hath set us free from them all, that we might be his. If a king take a servant into his family, and thereby free and discharge him from being liable unto any other duty or service whatever, may he not justly expect that such a one will be diligent in the observation of all his commands, especially considering also the honor and advantage that he hath by being taken near unto his person, and employed in his affairs? And shall not God much more expect the like from us, considering how exceedingly the privilege we have by this relation unto him surpasseth all that men can attain by the favor of earthly princes? And if we will choose other lords of our own to serve, if we are so regardless of ourselves as that we will serve our lusts and the world, when God hath had such respect unto us as that he would not suffer us to be subject unto the angels of heaven, how inexcusable shall we be in our sin and folly? You shall be for me,saith God, and not for any other whatever.And are we not miserable if we like not this agreement?
(2.) For the manner of our obedience, how ought we to endeavour that it be performed with all holiness and reverence! Moses makes this his great argument with the people for holiness in all their worship and services, because no people had God so nigh unto them as they had. And yet that nearness which he insisted on was but that of his institutions, and some visible pledges and representations therein of his presence among them. How much more cogent must the consideration of this real and spiritual nearness which God hath taken us unto himself in by Jesus needs be to the same purpose! All that we do, we do it immediately unto this holy God; not only under his eye and in his presence, but in an especial and immediate relation unto him by Jesus Christ,
Heb 2:6. The apostle hath showed that the world to come, which the Judaical church looked for, was not made subject unto angels, no mention of any such thing being made in the Scripture. That which he assumes to make good his assertion of the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus above the angels, is, that unto him it was put in subjection. And this he doth not expressly affirm in words of his own, but insinuateth in a testimony out of the Scripture, which he citeth and urgeth unto that purpose. And in this way he proceedeth for these two ends:
1. To evidence that what he taught was suitable unto the faith of the church of old, and contained in the oracles committed unto it; which was his especial way of dealing with these Hebrews.
2. That he might from the words of that testimony take occasion to obviate a great objection against the dignity of Christ and mysteries of the gospel, taken from his humiliation and death, and thereby make way to a further explication of many other parts or acts of his mediation.
Many difficulties there are in the words and expressions of these verses, and more in the apostles application of the testimony by him produced unto the person and end by him intended; all which, God assisting, we shall endeavor to remove. And to that end shall consider,
1. The way and manner of his introducing this testimony, which is peculiar;
2. The testimony itself produced, with an explication of the meaning and importance of the words in the place from whence it is taken;
3. The application of it unto the apostles purpose, both as to the person intended and as to the especial end aimed at;
4. Further unfold what the apostle adds about the death and sufferings of Christ, as included in this testimony, though not intended as to the first use and design of it; and,
5. Vindicate the apostles application of this testimony, with our explication of it accordingly, from the objections that some have made against it, All which we shall pass through as they present themselves unto us in the text itself.
1. The manner of his citing this testimony is somewhat peculiar, One testified in a certain place, neither person nor place being specified; as though he had intended , a certain person whom he would not name. But the reason of it is plain; both person and place were sufficiently known to them to whom he wrote. And the Syriac translation changeth the expression in the text into, But as the Scripture witnesseth and saith, without cause. The Hebrews were not ignorant whose words they were which he made use of, nor where they were recorded. The one there mentioned is David, and the certain place is the eighth psalm; whereof much need not to be added. A psalm it is , of the high praises of God; and such psalms do mostly, if not all of them, respect the Messiah and his kingdom, as the Jews themselves acknowledge. For the time of the composure of this psalm, they have a conjecture which is not altogether improbable, namely, that it was in the night, whilst he kept his fathers sheep. Hence, in his contemplation of the works of God, he insists on the moon and stars, then gloriously presenting themselves unto him; not mentioning the sun, which appeared not. So also, in the distribution that he makes of the things here below that, amongst others, are made subject unto man, he fixeth in the first place on , flocks of sheep, which were then peculiarly under his care. So should all the works of God, and those especially about which we are conversant in our particular callings, excite us to the admiration of his glory and praise of his name; and none are usually more void of holy thoughts of God than those who set themselves in no way acceptable unto him. This is the place from whence this testimony is taken, whose especial author the apostle omitteth, both because it was sufficiently known, and makes no difference at all whoever was the penman of this or that portion of Scripture seeing it was all equally given by inspiration from God, whereon alone the authority of it doth depend.
2. The testimony itself is contained in the words following, Heb 2:6-7, What is man, etc. Before we enter into a particular explication of the words, and of the apostles application of them, we may observe that there are two things in general that lie plain and clear before us; as,
First, That all things whatsoever are said to be put in subjection unto man, that is, unto human nature, in one or more persons, in opposition unto angels, or angelical nature. To express the former is the plain design and purpose of the psalmist, as we shall see. And whereas there is no such testimony anywhere concerning angels, it is evident that the meaning of the word is, Unto man, and not unto angels;which the apostle intimates in that adversative , but: But of man it is said, not of angels.
Secondly, That this privilege, was never absolutely or universally made good in or unto the nature of man, but in or with respect unto the person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. This the apostle calls us to the consideration of previously unto his application of this testimony in a peculiar manner unto Jesus: Heb 2:8, We see not all things, etc. Now, there is not any thing absolutely necessary to make good the apostles reasoning but what is comprised in these two general assertions, which lie evident in the text, and are acknowledged by all. We shall therefore distinctly consider the testimony itself. The whole of it consists in a contemplation of the infinite love and condescension of God towards man: which is set out,
(1.) In the manner of the expression;
(2.) In and by the words of the expression;
(3.) In the act of the mind and will of God wherein that condescension and grace consisted; and,
(4.) In the effects thereof, in his dispensation towards him.
(1.) In the manner of the expression, What is man! by way of admiration; yea, he cries out with a kind of astonishment. The immediate occasion hereof is omitted by the apostle, as not pertinent unto his purpose; but it is evident in the psalm. David having exercised his thoughts in the contemplation of the greatness, power, wisdom, and glory of God, manifesting themselves in his mighty works, especially the beauty, order, majesty, and usefulness of the heavens, and those glorious bodies which in them present themselves to all the world, falls thereon into this admiration, that this great and infinitely wise God, who by the word of his mouth gave being and existence unto all those things, and thereby made his own excellencies conspicuous to all the world, should condescend unto that care and regard of man which on this occasion his thoughts fixed themselves upon. What is man! saith he. And this is, or should be, the great use of all our contemplations of the works of God, namely, that considering his wisdom and power in them, we should learn to admire his love and grace in setting his heart upon us, who are every way so unworthy, seeing he might for ever satisfy himself in those other appearingly more glorious products of his power and Godhead.
(2.) He further expresseth his admiration at this condescension of God in the words that he useth, intimating the low and mean estate of man in his own nature: ; What is poor, miserable, mortal man, obnoxious to grief, sorrow, anxiety, pain, trouble, and death? ; but the Greeks have no name for man fully expressing that here used by the psalmist. cometh nearest it, but is not used in the Scripture. He adds, , and the son of man, of one made of the earth. This name the apostle alludes to, yea expresseth, 1Co 15:45; 1Co 15:47 : The first man Adam….. is of the earth, earthy. So was it recorded of old, Gen 2:7, The LORD God formed , that man Adam, which was the father of all, of the dust of the ground; and so again, Gen 3:19. Poor man, made of the dust of the ground! When the Scripture would express man with reference unto any thing of worth or excellency in him, it calls him ; and are sons of men in place, power, and esteem. So these words are distinguished, Psa 62:10, where we translate , sons of Adam, men of low degree; and sons of Ish, men of high degree. Now the psalmist useth this expression to heighten his admiration at the grace and condescension of God. And as the person of the first Adam cannot be here especially intended, for although he made himself , a miserable man, and subject unto death, yet was he not , the son of man, of any man, for he was of God, Luke 3 ult., so there is nothing in the words but may properly be ascribed unto the nature of man in the person of the Messiah. For as he was called, in an especial manner, , The son of man; so was he made , a man subject to sorrow, and acquainted above all men with grief and trouble, and was born on purpose to die.
Hence, in the contemplation of his own miserable condition, wherein unto the dolorous, afflicting passions of human nature which he had in himself, outward oppositions and reproaches were superadded, he cries out concerning himself, , Psa 22:7, I am a worm, and not , a man of any consideration in the world; at best.
(3.) He expresseth this condescension of God in the affections and acting of his mind towards man: , That thou rememberest him, or, art mindful of him. , That thou shouldest be mindful of him. To remember in the Scripture, when ascribed unto God, always intends some act of his mind and purpose of his will, and that either for good or evil towards them that are remembered, in a signal manner. So also is remembrance itself used. On this account God is said sometimes to remember us for good, and sometimes to remember our sins no more. So that it denotes the affection of the mind of God towards any creature for good or evil, attended with the purpose of his will to act towards them accordingly. In the first way it is here used, and so also by Job, Job 7:17, , What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? that is, remember him, or be mindful of him; set thine heart upon him for good.The frame of the heart and mind of God towards the nature of man in the person of Jesus Christ, in reference unto all the good that he did in it and by it, is intended in this expression. The whole counsel and purpose of God concerning the salvation of mankind, in and by the humiliation, exaltation, and whole mediation of the man Christ Jesus, is couched herein.
(4.) There are in this condescension the effects of this act of Gods mind and will in remembering of man; and they are expressed,
[1.] under one general head; and,
[2.] in particular instances of them.
[1.] The general effect of Gods remembering man, is that he visiteth him; as the same word is used in Job, in the place before mentioned. , though variously used, yet it constantly denotes the acting of a superior towards an inferior; and though it be often otherwise used, yet commonly it expresseth the acting of God towards his people for good. And in especial is this term of visiting used to express the acting of God in doing of us good by sending of Jesus Christ to take our nature on him: Luk 1:68, He hath visited and redeemed his people; and to the same purpose, Luk 1:78, The day-spring from on high hath visited us: both relating to the acting of God towards us in the person of his Son incarnate. So Luk 7:16. This term, therefore, of visiting, doth not precisely design Gods acting in the exaltation of him visited, but such an ordering of things towards him as is attended with great care, grace, and love. So was the nature of man in the heart of God to do good unto it, in and by the person of Jesus Christ, and so he acted towards it, or visited it. This is that which was the ground of the psalmists admiration, and which will be so in all believers unto eternity. It was not the outward state and condition of mankind in the world, which, since the entrance of sin, is sad and deplorable, that excites this admiration in the psalmist, but his mind is intent upon the mystery of the grace, wisdom, and love of God in the person of the Messiah.
Heb 2:7.
[2.] The especial instances wherein this visitation of God expressed itself are contained in Heb 2:7, and therein referred unto two heads:
1st. Mans depression and humiliation;
2dly. His exaltation and glory.
1st. The first is expressed in these words, Thou hast made him lower for a little while than the angels. This was a part of Gods visitation; and though not that which was immediately intended by the apostle, yet that whereof he intends to make great use in his progress. That these words intend not the exaltation of the nature of mere man, as if they should intimate, that such is his dignity he is made but a little less than angels, and how destructive that sense is unto the apostles intention and application of the words, we shall afterwards declare. Three things are here expressed:
(1st.) The act of God, in making of him low, or lessening of him;
(2dly.) The measure of that depression, than the angels;
(3dly.) His duration in that state and condition, a little while.
(1st.) , the word used by the psalmist is rendered by the apostle , and that properly. They both signify a diminution of state and condition, a depression of any one from what he before enjoyed. And this in the first place belongs unto Gods visitation. And the acting of the will of Christ in this matter, suitably unto the will of the Father, is expressed by words of the same importance: , He emptied himself; and , He humbled himself, Php 2:7-8 : denoting a voluntary depression from the glory of a former state and condition. In this humiliation of Christ in our nature, how much of that care and , inspection and visitation of God, was contained, is known.
(2dly.) The measure of this humiliation and depression is expressed in reference unto angels, with whom he is now compared by the apostle, he was made less than the angels. This the Hebrews had seen and knew, and might from his humiliation raise an objection against what the apostle asserted about his preference above them. Wherefore he acknowledgeth that he was made less than they, shows that it was foretold that so he should be, and in his following discourse gives the reasons why it was so to be. And he speaks not of the humiliation of Christ absolutely, which was far greater than here it is expressed by him, as he afterwards declares, but only with respect unto angels, with whom he compares him; and it is therefore sufficient to his purpose at present to show that he was made lower than they: . Jerome renders the words in the psalm, a Deo, than God; and Faber Stapulensis had a long contest with Erasmus to prove that they should be so rendered in this place; which is plainly to contradict the apostle, and to accuse him of corrupting the word of God. Besides, the sense contended for by him and others is absurd and foolish, namely, that the human nature of Christ was made little less than God, and humbled that it might be so, when it was infinitely less than the divine nature, as being created. The LXX. and all old Greek translations read angels. That elohim is often used to denote them we have proved before. The Targum hath , angels; and the scope of the place necessarily requires that sense of the word. God, then, in his visitation of the nature of man in the person of his Son, put it, and therein him that was invested with it, into a condition of wants and straits, and humbled him beneath the condition of angels, for the blessed ends afterwards declared. For although, from his incarnation and birth, the angels adored his person as their Lord, yet in the outward condition of his human nature he was made exceedingly beneath that state of glory and excellency which the angels are in a constant enjoyment of.
(3dly.) There is a space of time, a duration, intended for this condition. He made him lower, , , for a little while, or, a short season. That is often used in that sense, and that that is the proper notation of , we have showed before. But that which renders that sense of the words here unquestionable, is the apostles precise restraining them thereunto in Php 2:9, as we shall see. It was but for a little while that the person of Christ in the nature of man was brought into a condition more indigent than the state of angels is exposed unto; neither was he for that season made a little, but very much lower than the angels. And had this been the whole of his state, it could not have been an effect of that inexpressible love and care which the psalmist so admires; but seeing it is but for a little continuance, and that for the blessed ends which the apostle declares, nothing can more commend them unto us.
2dly. There is another effect of Gods visitation of man, in his exaltation; expressed,
(1st.) In the dignity whereunto he advanced him; and,
(2dly.) In the rule and dominion that he gave unto him.
(1st.) For the first, he crowned him with glory and honor. is insigne regium, the badge and token of supreme and kingly power. Hence when David complains of the straitening and diminution of his power or rule, he says, his crown was profaned unto the ground,
Psa 89:39; that is, made contemptible and trampled on. To be crowned, then, is to be invested with sovereign power, or with right and title thereunto; as it was with Solomon, who was crowned during the life of his father. Nor is it an ordinary crown that is intended, but one accompanied with glory and honor. To be crowned with glory and honor, is to have a glorious and honorable crown, or rule and sovereignty: . The first denotes the weight of this crown; , weight of glory, from , to be heavy; , a weight of glory, as the apostle speaks in allusion to the primitive signification of this word, 2Co 4:17 : the other, its beauty and glory: both, authority and majesty. How Christ was thus crowned, we have at large showed on the first chapter.
(2dly.) This sovereignty is attended with actual rule; wherein,
[1st.] The dominion itself is expressed; and,
[2dly.] The extent of it.]
[1st.] Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. , madest him to rule; , appointedst him in authority over. He had actual rule and dominion given him upon his coronation. And,
[2dly.] The extent of this dominion is the works of Gods hands, And lest any, from this indefinite expression, should think this rule limited either to the things mentioned before by the psalmist, 2Co 4:3, called the work of Gods fingers, that is, the heavens, the moon, and the stars; or in the following distribution of things here below; into sheep, oxen, fowls, and fish, 2Co 4:7-8, that is, all the creatures here below; he adds an amplification of it in a universal proposition, , He hath put all things without exception in subjection unto him. And to manifest his absolute and unlimited power, with the unconditional subjection of all things unto him, he adds, that they are placed , under his very feet; an expression setting forth a dominion every way unlimited and absolute.
Heb 2:8. The apostle having recited the testimony which he intends to make use of, proceeds in the eighth verse unto some such explications of it as may make it appear to be proper and suited unto the end for which it is produced by him. And they are two; the first whereof respects the sense of the words, which express the extent of this dominion; the second an instance of some person or persons unto whom this testimony as thus explained cannot be applied.
(1.) For the explication of the objective extent of the rule and dominion mentioned, he adds, For in that he hath made all subject unto him, he hath left nothing that is not put under him; for whereas it might be objected, that there is no mention in the psalm of the world to come, whereof he treats, he lets them know that that cannot be excepted, seeing the assertion is universal and unlimited, that all things whatsoever are put under him. It is true, our apostle making use of this very testimony in another place, 1Co 15:27, adds there, that there is a manifest exception in reference unto him who so put all things under him. And it is evident that it is so indeed; for the psalmist treats not of God himself, but of the works of God; and among them, saith the apostle here, there lies no exception,
they are all brought into order, under this rule. And so by this testimony, thus explained, as necessity requires it should be, he hath fully confirmed that the world to come, being one of the especial works of God, and not put in subjection unto angels, is made subject unto man; which was that he undertook to demonstrate.
(2.) To direct this testimony unto its proper end, and to make way for its application unto him who is especially intended therein, he declares negatively unto whom it is not applicable: But now we see not yet all things put under him. Man it was concerning whom the words are spoken, What is man! This must denote the nature of man, and that either as it is in all mankind in general and every individual, or in some especial and peculiar instance, in one partaker of that nature. For the first, he denies that this can belong unto man in general, all or any of them, on the general account of being men. And in this negation there are two circumstances considerable:
[1.] The manner of his asserting it, by an appeal to common experience: We see; This is a matter whereof every one may judge:We all of us know by experience that it is otherwise:We need neither testimony nor argument to instruct us herein; our own condition, and that which we behold other men in, are sufficient to inform us.And this is a way whereby an appeal is made as it were to common sense and experience, as we do in things that are most plain and unquestionable.
[2.] There is a limitation of this experience in the word yet: We see not as yet. And this doth not intimate a contrary state of things for the future, but denies it as to all the time that is past: A long space of time there hath been since the giving out of this testimony, much longer since the creation of man and all other things, and yet all this while we see that all things are far enough from being put under the feet of man.Or if there be in the word a reserve for some season wherein this word shall in some sense be fulfilled in mere man also, it is for that time wherein they shall be perfectly glorified with Him who is principally intended, and so be admitted as it were to be sharers with him in his dominion, Rev 3:21. These things make plain what is here denied, and in what sense. All mankind in conjunction are very remote from being invested with the dominion here described, from having the whole creation of God cast in subjection under their feet. It is true, there was given unto man at first, in his original condition, a rule over those creatures here below that were made for the use and sustentation of his natural life, and no other. And this also is in some measure continued unto his posterity, though against the present bent and inclination of the creatures, which groan because of the bondage that they are put unto in serving of their use and necessity. But all this at first was but an obscure type and shadow of the dominion here intended, which is absolute, universal, and such as the creatures have no reason to complain of, their proper condition being allotted unto them therein. Hence we ourselves, by our own observation, may easily discern that this word respects not principally either the first man or his posterity; for we see not as yet, after this long space of time since the creation, that all things are put into subjection unto him.
Having thus unfolded the testimony insisted on, before we proceed unto the apostolical application of it unto the person to whom it doth belong, we may stay here a little, and gather something from it for our instruction. And it is, in general, that The consideration of the infinitely glorious excellencies of the nature of God, manifesting themselves in his works, doth greatly set out his condescension and grace in his regard and respect unto mankind. This the occasion of the words, and the words themselves, do teach us.
This the method of the psalmist, I say, leads as unto. He begins and ends his consideration of the works of God with an admiration of his glorious excellency by whom they were made, Rev 3:1; Rev 3:9, O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name! How glorious art thou! and thou manifestest thyself so to be.And from thence doth he proceed to the consideration of his condescension in his regard and love to man, Rev 3:4. And to direct us in this duty, with the psalmist we may observe, First, That the works of God, those especially which were the peculiar subject of his meditation, the heavenly bodies which we behold, are indeed in themselves exceedingly glorious. Their frame, greatness, beauty, order, course, usefulness, all speak them admirable and glorious. The naked view of them is enough to fill the mind of man with admiration and astonishment. And the more we contemplate on them, the more skillful we are in the consideration of their nature, order, and use, the more excellent do they appear unto us: and yet it is the least part of their greatness and beautiful disposition that we can attain a certain knowledge of; so that still they remain more the objects of our admiration and wonder than of our science. Hence the wisest among the heathen, who were destitute of the teachings of the word and Spirit of God, did with one consent ascribe of old a deity unto them, and worshipped them as gods; yea, the very name of God in the Greek language, , is taken from , to run, which they derived from the constant course of the heavenly bodies. They saw with their eyes how glorious they were; they found out by reason their greatness and dreadful motion. Experience taught them their use, as the immediate fountains of light, warmth, heat, moisture; and so, consequently, of life, growth, and all useful things. It may be they had some tradition of that rule and dominion which was at first allotted unto the sun and moon over day and night, Gen 1:16. On these and the like accounts, having lost the knowledge of the true and only God, they knew not so well whither to turn themselves for a deity as to those things which they saw so full of glory, and which they found to be of so universal a communicative goodness and usefulness. And in them did all idolatry in the world begin. And it was betimes in the world, as we see in Job, where it is mentioned and condemned, Job 31:26-27, If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand. He condemns the idolatry, but yet withal shows that the lustre, brightness, and glory of those heavenly lights had a great influence on the hearts of men to entice them unto a secret adoration, which would break out into outward worship, whereof salutation by kissing the hand was one part and act. And therefore God cautions his people against this temptation, Deu 4:19,
Lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
If men forget the true God, and then lift up their eyes unto, or fall into the contemplation of the heavenly bodies, such is their glory, majesty, and excellency, that they will be driven and hurried unto the adoration and worship of them. And so universal was this folly of old, that from these latter words, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations, the Jews affirm that God hath given the sun, moon, and stars, to be the deities of the Gentiles, for them to worship! But the distribution there mentioned is as unto their common use unto all nations, and not as to their veneration. Nor is God the author of idolatry, as they blasphemously imagine; but this their glory and excellency led them unto. And when any of them ascended higher, to apprehend living, intelligent spirits for their deities, they yet conceived at least that they had their glorious habitation in the heavenly bodies. Yea, and some Christians have fallen into vain imaginations, from a false translation of the latter end of the fourth verse of Psalms 19 by the LXX. and the Vulgar Latin, which read the words, He hath placed his tabernacle in the sun, instead of, He hath set in them, that is, in the heavens, a tabernacle for the sun, as the words are plain in the original. Why should I mention the madness of the Manichees, who affirmed that Christ himself was gone into, if not turned into the sun? I name these things only to show what influence upon the minds of men destitute of the word the glory and excellency of these heavenly bodies have had. And what inestimable grace God showeth unto us in the benefit of his word! for we are the posterity of them, and by nature not one jot wiser than they, who worshipped those things which are not God. But exceeding glorious works of God they are; and the more we consider them, the more will their glory and greatness appear unto us. And as the children of Israel said of the sons of Anak, We were before them in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight, may we not much more say concerning ourselves, compared with these glorious works of the hands of God, We are all but as grasshoppers in comparison of them, and whence is it that God should set his heart upon us?
Secondly, These glorious works of God do indeed show the infinite glory of him that made them. This is the use that men should have made of their contemplation of them, and not have chosen them for their gods, as they did when their foolish hearts were darkened, and they waxed vain in their imaginations. This use the psalmist here makes of them, and this the Scripture everywhere directs us unto. This David brings them in preaching unto all the world, Psa 19:1-6. They have a voice, they speak aloud unto all the world; and by their beauty, greatness, order, usefulness, they make known the incomprehensible glory of him that made them. The , that which may be known of God, is manifest in them, saith Paul, Rom 1:19. And what is that? Even his eternal power and Godhead, Rom 1:20; that is, his infinite power, all-sufficiency, and self-subsistence. These things are clearly seen in them. Being all made and created by him in their season, doth it not manifest that he was before them, from eternity, and that existing without them, in perfect blessedness?
And that he hath made them so beautiful, so glorious, so excellent, and that out of nothing, doth it not declare his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness? Do they not all lead us to the contemplation of his infinite excellencies? And whence is it that he who made all these things of nothing should have such regard to the weak, frail nature of man? But that this consideration may be the more effectual, let us take a little weak view of some of those excellencies of the nature of God which his works declare, and which set an especial lustre on his condescension unto us; as,
First, His greatness. His greatness is unsearchable, saith the psalmist, Psa 145:3; that is, it is infinite. The immensity of his nature is his greatness. The heaven of heavens, saith Solomon, cannot contain him, 1Ki 8:27. The infiniteness and ubiquity of his essence are beyond all that the understanding and imagination of man can reach unto. If men would set themselves to think and imagine a greatness, they can reach no higher than heavens above heavens, and that as far as they can fancy; but this expresseth not immensity. Those heavens of heavens cannot contain him. Our thoughts of greatness are apt to consist in adding one thing unto another, until that which we think on be extended unto the utmost of our imagination. But this hath no relation unto the immensity of God, which is not his filling of all imaginary place or space, but an infinite existence in an infinite space. So that as he is present with, indistant from the whole creation, for saith he, Do not I fill heaven and earth? Jer 23:24, so is he no less present where there is no part of the creation. And if he should produce thousands of worlds (which he can do by his power), he would be no less present in them all, indistant from every thing in them, than he is in and unto this which he hath already created; and this not by the extending of his essence and greatness, but by the infiniteness of his being. Neither are there parts in this immensity; for that which hath parts cannot be infinite or immense. Somewhat of God is not present in heaven, and somewhat in earth; but God is wholly present in his whole being everywhere. This leaves no place for the imagination of men, but calls us for pure acts of understanding and faith to assent unto it, And thus far reason will go, that it will assent unto the truth of that which it cannot comprehend, because it is convinced that it cannot be otherwise. What remains it leaves to faith and reverential adoration. Reason having, by the help of divine revelation, led the mind and soul thus far, that God is immense, not only present unto the whole creation, but existing in his infinite being where no creature is, and that in his whole essence equally, there it gives them up to admiration, reverence, adoration, and the improvement by faith of this excellency of God, wherever they are. So doth the psalmist, Psa 139:7-11. Thoughts of Gods omnipresence are of singular use to the soul in every condition. And who can sufficiently admire this excellency of the nature of God? How astonishable is this his greatness! How are all the nations of the world as the drop of a bucket, as the dust of the balance, as vanity, as nothing before him! What is a little dust to an immensity of being? to that whose greatness we cannot measure, whose nature we cannot comprehend, whose glory we can only stand afar off and adore? What is a poor worm unto him who is everywhere, and who is everywhere filled with his own excellencies and blessedness? The issue of all our thoughts on this property of Gods nature is admiration and holy astonishment. And whence is it that he should take thought of us, or set his heart upon us? And this greatness of God doth he set forth, by showing what a mean thing the whole creation which we behold is unto him: Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?….. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing….. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity,Isa 40:12; Isa 40:15; Isa 40:17.
Secondly, His infinite self-sufficiency doth manifest itself in his works; for all these things are the absolute product of his power, and wisdom, and goodness. From the infinite stores and treasures of them did he bring them all forth. They had no previous matter whereof they were made; no reason, cause, or end was there why they should be made, but only what was in himself and from himself, Rom 11:36, Rev 4:11. Now, this could not have been without an infinite self-sufficiency in himself, from whence it is that all things begin and end in him. And had he not been every way self-sufficient before the existence of all things, out of nothing, nothing could have been produced. And this ariseth from his fullness of being, which he declareth by his names and ; which denote his self-being, his self-existence, his self-sufficiency. All the properties of his nature, being infinite, have that which satisfies them and fills them. His understanding is infinite. And as nothing could comprehend the infinite nature of God but an infinite understanding, God could not know himself if his understanding were not infinite. So nothing could satisfy an infinite understanding but an infinite object; the understanding of God could not be blessed and in rest if the object of it, the nature of God, were not infinite. God by his understanding knows the extent of his infinite power, and so knows not only what he hath wrought by his power, but also whatever he can so do. And this suitableness of the properties of God one to another, as it makes them, because infinite, not really to differ from one another, or from his nature itself, so it gives them all rest, blessedness, satisfaction, and self-sufficiency: as, to continue in our former instances, the blessedness of the understanding of God consists in its comprehension of the whole nature of God, nor is capable of more, because it can comprehend no more. Hence is God all-sufficient, and eternally blessed in the contemplation and enjoyment of his own excellencies; for self-sufficiency is the fountain of blessedness. Where any thing is wanting, there is no absolute blessedness. And hence is the blessedness of God absolute, eternal, and essential unto him, because it hath its rise and spring absolutely in himself, his own fullness of being, his own sufficiency unto and for himself. All the blessedness of the creatures that we shall or may ever attain unto is but dependent, derivative, and communicated; because, though nothing shall be wanting unto us, yet the spring of our supplies shall never be in ourselves, but in God. His blessedness is absolute, because it is from himself and in himself, in his being every way self-sufficient. This it is to be absolutely blessed. Hence God made not these things because he had need of them, for if he had had need of them he could not have made them; or that they should add any thing unto him, for that is not infinite unto which any thing can be added; or that he might settle that rest and satisfaction in them which he had not in himself before, for that alone which is infinite must necessarily and unavoidably give eternal satisfaction unto that which is infinite: but only by a most free act of his will, he chose by the creation of all things to express somewhat of his power, wisdom, and goodness in something without himself. Absolutely he was self-sufficient from all eternity, and that both as to rest, satisfaction, and blessedness in himself, as also in respect of any operation, as to outward works, which his will and wisdom should incline him unto; being every way able and powerful in and from himself to do whatever he pleaseth. And this infinite satisfaction and complacency of God in himself, arising from that fullness of divine being which is in all the properties of his nature, is another object of our holy admiration and adoration. This God was, this God did, before the world was created.Now, what is man, that this every way all-sufficient God should mind, regard, and visit him? Hath he any need of him or his services? Doth his goodness extend to him? Can he profit God, as a man profiteth his neighbor? If he sin, what doth he against him? or if his transgressions be multiplied, what doth he unto him?that is, to his disadvantage.
If he be righteous, what giveth he unto him? or what receiveth he of his hand? Job 35:6-7.
Nothing but infinite condescension and grace is the fountain of all Gods regard unto us.
Thirdly, His infinite and eternal power is by the same means manifested. This the apostle expressly affirms, Rom 1:20. He that made all these things of nothing, and therefore can also make and create in like manner whatever else besides he pleaseth, must needs be infinite in power, or, as he is called, the Lord God omnipotent, Rev 19:6. This himself sets forth in general, Isa 40:28. And to convince Job hereof, he treats with him in particular instances about some few of his fellow- creatures here below, in the earth and in the waters, chapters 38-41. And if the power of God in making this or that creature which we see and behold be so admirable, declaring his sovereignty, and the infinite distance of man from him in his best condition, how glorious is it in the whole universe, and in the creation of all things visible and invisible, and that by a secret emanation of omnipotency in a word of command! The art of man will go far in the framing, fashioning, and ordering of things; but there are two things in the least of the creatures of God that make the creating energy that is seen in them infinitely to differ from all limited and finite power:
1. That they are brought out of nothing. Now, let all creatures combine their strength and wisdom together, unless they have some pre-existent matter to work upon, they can produce nothing, effect nothing.
2. To many of his creatures, of the least of them, God hath given life and spontaneous motion; to all of them an especial inclination and operation, following inseparably the principles of their nature. But as all created power can give neither life, nor spontaneous motion, nor growth to any thing, no more can it plant in any thing a new natural principle, that should incline it unto a new kind of operation which was not originally connatural unto it. There is a peculiar impress of omnipotency upon all the works of God, as he declares at large in that discourse with Job, chapters 38-41. And this power is no less effectual nor less evident in his sustentation and preservation of all things than in his creation of them. Things do no more subsist by themselves than they were made by themselves. He upholdeth all things by the word of his power, Heb 1:3; and by him all things consist, Col 1:17. He hath not made the world, and then turned it off his hand, to stand on its own bottom and shift for itself; but there is continually, every moment, an emanation of power from God unto every creature, the greatest, the least, the meanest, to preserve them in their being and order; which if it were suspended but for one moment, they would all lose their station and being, and by confusion be reduced into nothing. In him we live, and move, and have our being, Act 17:28; and he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things, Act 17:25. God needs not to put forth any act of his power to destroy the creation; the very suspension of that constant emanation of omnipotency which is necessary unto its subsistence would be sufficient for that end and purpose. And who can admire as he ought this power of God, which is greater in every particular grass of the field than we are able to search into or comprehend? And what is man, that he should be mindful of him
Fourthly, His wisdom also shines forth in these works of his hands. In wisdom hath he made them all, Psa 104:24. So also Psa 136:5. His power was that which gave all things their being, but his wisdom gave them their order, beauty, and use. How admirable this is, how incomprehensible it is unto us, Zophar declares to Job, Job 11:6-9, The secrets of this wisdom are double unto what may be known of it, infinitely more than we can attain to the knowledge of. Searching will not do it; it is absolutely incomprehensible. He that can take but a little, weak, faint consideration of the glorious disposition of the heavenly bodies, their order, course, respect to each other, their usefulness and influences, their disposition and connection of causes and effects here below, the orderly concurrence and subserviency of every thing in its place and operation, to the consistency, use, and beauty of the universe, will be forced to cry out with the psalmist, O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. But, alas! what can the best and wisest of men attain unto in the investigation of the wisdom of God? There is not the least creature, but, considered apart by itself, hath somewhat belonging unto it that will bring them unto wonder and astonishment. And what shall we say concerning the most glorious, concerning the order of them all unto one another and the whole? There must all mens considerations end, and among them this of ours.
Fifthly, His goodness is in like manner manifest in these things. There is in the whole and every part of Gods creation a fourfold goodness:
1. A goodness of being and subsistence. That which is, so far forth as it is, is good. So God saw all things, as he made them, that they were good. The very being of every thing is its first goodness, on which all other concernments of it depend. And this ariseth from hence, because thereby and therein it participates of the first absolute goodness, which is being; whereunto a nothingness, if I may so speak, is negatively opposed ad infinitum.
2. A goodness of order. This gives them their beauty, which is the first principle properly of goodness, and convertible with it. Every thing that is good is beautiful, and every thing that is beautiful is good. Now, the pulchritude or beauty of the whole creation, and of every part of it, consists in the order that is given unto it by the wisdom of God, whereof we spake before. This is that of all things, which of old, by the light of nature, was so much admired, beautiful goodness, or goodly beauty, whereby every thing becomes comely and desirable, both in itself and its own parts and in that respect which it hath unto all other things.
3. A goodness of usefulness. Nothing is made in vain. Every thing hath its work, service, and operation allotted unto it. If the whole creation had been uniform, if it had been only one thing, it would have wanted this goodness, and been but a dead lump, or mass of being. But in this great variety and diversity of things which we behold, every one hath its proper place and service, and nothing is useless. As the apostle says that it is in the several parts and members of the lesser world, man, that though some of them seem more worthy and comely than others, yet all have their proper use, so that they cannot say one unto another, I have no need of thee; so is it in the universe, though some parts of it seem to be very glorious, and others mean and to be trampled on, yet they cannot say one to another, I have no need of thee, each having its proper use. The eye is a most noble part of the body; but,saith the apostle, if the whole body were an eye, the beauty of the whole were lost, and the very use of the eye.How glorious is the sun in the firmament, in comparison of a poor worm on the earth! yet if the whole creation were one sun, it would have neither beauty nor use, nor indeed be a sun, as having nothing to communicate light or heat unto. But God hath brought forth his works in unspeakable variety, that they might all have this goodness of usefulness accompanying of them.
4. A goodness of an orderly tendency unto the utmost and last end; which is the glory of him by whom they were made. This also is implanted upon the whole creation of God. And hence the psalmist calls upon all the inanimate creatures to give praise and glory unto God; that is, he calls upon himself and others to consider how they do so. This is the point, the center, where all these lines do meet, without which there could be neither beauty nor order nor use in them; for that which errs from its end is crooked, perverse, and not good. On all these considerations it is said that God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good, Gen 1:31. Now, what an infinite, eternal ocean of goodness must that be, which by the word of his mouth communicated all this goodness at once unto the whole creation! How deep, how unfathomable is this fountain! how unsearchable are these springs! This the holy men in the Scripture often express by way of admiration, How great is his goodness! how great is his beauty! The first goodness, the fountain of all goodness, must needs be absolutely and infinitely so; in which sense there is none good but one, that is, God.
In these things consist somewhat of the glory, excellency, and honor of God, which the psalmist falls into an admiration of upon the contemplation of the works of his hands, and which made him so astonished at his condescension in the regard that he is pleased to bear unto the nature of man. But besides this consideration, he adds also an intimation, as we have showed, of the mean condition of man, unto whom this respect is showed, and that both in the manner of his expression, What is man? and in the words or names whereby he expresseth him, Enosh and Adam; which we shall also briefly add unto our former considerations of the glory of God.
First, What is man as to his extract? A little dust, made of the dust of the ground; one that may say to corruption, Thou art my father; and to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister, Job 17:14. His fabric was not one jot of any better materials than theirs. That God put this honor upon him, to breathe into the dust whereof he was made, that he should become a living soul, is part of that goodness wherein he is to be admired. Otherwise we are what God said to Adam: Dust thou art. Poor creature, that wouldst be like unto God, thou art dust, and no more! And in the sense of this extraction did holy men of old abase themselves in the presence of God, as Abraham, Gen 18:27, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes? Poor, proud man! which scornest to touch that which thou art made of, and thinkest thyself I know not what, whilst the remainder of thee, that which was left in the making of thee, lies under the feet of all the creatures which thou despisest, what is this handful of dust that God should regard it? But yet,
Secondly, This fabric, being erected, is perhaps durable, strong, and abiding, and so may be considerable on that account. But, alas! his frailty is inexpressible. It is true, that before the flood the life of man was prolonged unto a great continuance; but as that was not in the least any advantage unto the most of them, giving them only an opportunity to increase their sin and misery, nor to the whole society of mankind, seeing by that means the earth was filled with violence, and became a woeful habitation of distress, so they also came to their end, and long since nothing remaineth of their memory but that they lived so many years and then they died, which is the common end of man. But since that, in which our concernment lies, how do the holy men of God set forth, amid as it were complain of, the woeful frailty of our condition! So doth Moses, Psa 90:5-6, Thou carriest them away as with a flood ; which he spake in contemplation of those thousands which he saw die before his eyes in the wilderness. In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. The like also pleadeth Job, Job 14:1-2; and then turning unto God he saith, And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one? regard such a poor, frail, perishing creature?And David doth the like, Psa 102:24. And indeed no tongue can express the miserable, frail condition of this poor creature. From within, from without, from himself, from all other creatures, and principally from the rage and cruelty of those of the same nature with himself, his misery is great, and his life of short continuance. And God abundantly shows that little weight also is to be laid on that duration which he hath here in this world, in that he takes many from the very womb, who scarce ever beheld the light, into the participation of his own eternal glory.
Thirdly, This earthy, frail man hath made himself yet more unspeakably vile by sin. This sets him at the utmost distance from the glory of God, and utterly soils every thing that is in him which of itself is worthy of consideration.
All these things being put together, they make the condescension of God in remembering man, and setting his heart upon him, exceedingly to be admired and adored. And this also will further appear if we might consider what are the blessed effects of this mindfulness of him; but these the apostle insists upon in the next verses, whither we may refer our meditations on them. Only the duty itself arising from hence may be here pressed upon us; and this is, that upon the accounts mentioned we should live constantly in a holy admiration of this infinite condescension and grace of God. To this end,
First, Let us exercise ourselves unto holy thoughts of Gods infinite excellencies. Meditation, accompanied with holy admiration is the fountain of this duty. Some men have over busily and curiously inquired into the nature and properties of God, and have foolishly endeavored to measure infinite things by the miserable short line of their own reason, and to suit the deep things of God unto their own narrow apprehensions. Such are many of the disputations of the schoolmen on this subject, wherein though they have seemed wise to themselves and others, yet indeed for the most part they have waxed vain in their imaginations. Our duty lies in studying what God hath revealed of himself in his word, and what is evidently suitable thereunto, and that not with curious searchings and speculations, but with holy admiration, reverence, and fear. This the apostle adviseth us unto, Heb 12:28-29. In this way serious thoughts of Gods excellencies and properties, his greatness, immensity, self-sufficiency, power, and wisdom, are exceeding useful unto our souls. When these have filled us with wonder, when they have prostrated our spirits before him, and laid our mouths in the dust and our persons on the ground, when the glory of them shines round about us, and our whole souls are filled with a holy astonishment, then,
Secondly, Let us take a view of ourselves, our extract, our frailty, our vileness on every account. How poor, how undeserving are we! What is a little sinful dust and ashes, before or in the sight of this God of glory? What is there in us, what is there belonging unto us, that is not suited to abase us; alive one day, dead another; quiet one moment, troubled another; fearing caring, rejoicing causelessly, sinning always; in our best condition altogether vanity? Though much may be said unto this purpose, yet it must be said after all that in ourselves we are inexpressibly miserable, and, as the prophet speaks, less than vanity, and nothing. Would we be wise? we are like the wild asss colt; would we be honorable? we have no understanding, but are like the beasts that perish; would we be strong? we are as a reed shaken with the wind. And,
Thirdly, Let the result of these thoughts be a holy admiration of Gods infinite love, care, grace, and condescension, in having any regard unto us. So doth the psalmist teach us to do. Hence will praise, hence will thankfulness, hence will self-abasement ensue. And this will be a good foundation, as of obedience, so of comfort and supportment in every condition.
Heb 2:9.
3. These things being spoken indefinitely of man by the psalmist, the apostle, in the application of them unto his present purpose, proceeds to show who it is that was especially intended, and in whom the words had their full accomplishment. But, saith he, we see Jesus, etc. Many difficulties the words of this verse are attended withal, all which we shall endeavor to clear, first, by showing in general how in them the apostle applies the testimony produced by him unto Jesus; secondly, by freeing them from the obscurity that ariseth from a , or transposition of expression in them; thirdly, by opening the several things taught and asserted in them; and, fourthly, by a vindication of the whole interpretation from exceptions and objections.
(1.) The apostle positively applies this testimony unto Jesus, as him who was principally intended therein, or as him in whom the things that God did when he minded man were accomplished. And this the Syriac translation directly expresseth: ; But him whom he made lower a little while than the angels, we see that it is Jesus. That is, it is Jesus concerning whom the psalmist spake, and in whom alone this testimony is verified. Two things are expressed concerning man in the words:
[1.] That he was made lower than the angels;
[2.] That he had all things put in subjection unto him.
Both these,saith the apostle, we see accomplished in Jesus;for that is the meaning of that expression, We see Jesus, that is, these things fulfilled in him. And as he had before appealed unto their belief and experience in his negative, that all things are not made subject to man in general, so doth he here in his affirmative, We see Jesus. Now, they saw it, partly by what he had before proved concerning him; partly by the signs and wonders he had newly spoken of, whereby his doctrine was confirmed and his power over all things manifested; partly by his calling and gathering of his church, giving laws, rules, and worship unto it, by virtue of his authority in and over this new world. And as unto the former part of the testimony, it was evident by what they had seen with their eyes, or had been otherwise taught concerning his low estate and humiliation: These things,saith he, we see, they are evident unto us, nor can be denied whilst the gospel is acknowledged.Now this confession, on the evidences mentioned, he applies to both parts of the testimony.
[1.] Saith he, We see that for a little while he was made lower than the angels, or brought into a state and condition of more exigency and want than they are or can be exposed unto. And hereby he evidently declares that those words in the psalm do not belong unto the dignity of man spoken of, as if he had said, He is so excellent that he is but little beneath angels;for as he ascribes unto him a dignity far above all angels, inasmuch as all things without exception are put under his feet, so he plainly declares that these words belong to the depression and minoration of Jesus, in that he was so humbled that he might die. And therefore he proceeds to show how that part of the testimony concerned his present purpose, not as directly proving what he had proposed to confirmation concerning his dignity, but as evidently designing the person that the whole belonged unto. As also, he takes occasion from hence to enter upon the exposition of another part of Christs mediation, as prophesied of in this place; for though he was so lessened, yet it was not on his own account, but that by the grace of God he might taste death for every man.
[2.] For the other part of the testimony, We see,saith he, upon the evidences mentioned, that he is crowned with glory and honor, and consequently that all things are put under his feet.So that the whole testimony, in both parts of it, is verified in him, and in him alone. And hereby he fully evinceth what he had before proposed unto confirmation, namely, the pre-eminence of Jesus, the Messiah, above the angels, or principal administrators of the law, in this especial instance, that the world to come was put into subjection unto him, and not unto them. And therefore in the state of the church intended in that expression are his teachings, his doctrines, his worship, diligently to be attended unto, by all those who desire to be partakers of the promises and good things thereof.
(2.) There seems to be a in the words, by a transposition of some expressions from their proper place and coherence, which must be removed: , . Some would have these words, , to belong to the subject of the proposition, whose predicate alone is, crowned with glory and honor, whereof the suffering of death is inserted as the meritorious cause: so reading the words to this purpose, We see that Jesus, who was for a little while made lower than the angels, for his suffering of death is crowned with glory and honor. Others would have Jesus alone to be the subject of the proposition; of whose predicate there are two parts, or two things are affirmed concerning him, first, that he was made lower than the angels, the reason whereof is added, namely, that he might suffer death, which is further explained in the close of the verse by the addition of the cause and end of that his suffering, that by the grace of God he might taste death for every man: so reading the words to this purpose, We see Jesus, made lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned (or, and crowned) with glory and honor. The difficulty principally consists in this only, namely, whether the apostle by , for the suffering of death, intend the final end of the humiliation of Christ, he was made low that he might suffer death;or the meritorious cause of his exaltation, for,or because he suffered death, he was crowned with glory and honor.And the former seems evidently the intention of the words, according to the latter resolution of them, and our application of the testimony foregoing. For,
[1.] If the cause and means of the exaltation of Christ had been intended, it would have been expressed by , requiring a genitive case, where the cause or means of any thing is intended; but expresseth the end of what was before affirmed.
[2.] These words, For the suffering of death, must express either the minoration and humiliation of Christ, or the end of it. If they express the end of it, then we obtain that which is pleaded for, he was made less that he might suffer. If they express his minoration itself, then the end of it is contained only in the close of the verse, That he might taste death for every man; in which exposition of the words the sense would be, that he suffered death, that by the grace of God he might taste death, which is no sense at all.
[3.] If these words denote only the means or meritorious cause of the exaltation of Christ, I inquire what is the medium intended of that end in the close, , That he by the grace of God might taste death? The word , that so, plainly refers unto some preparatory means preceding, which in this way can be nothing but the crowning him with glory and honor, which we know was not the means, but the effect of it. He was humbled, not exalted, that he might taste of death.
[4.] The apostle doth not merely take it for granted that Jesus was for a little while made lower than the angels, but asserts it as proved in the testimony insisted on; whereunto he subjoins the end of that his comparative minoration, because he intended it as the especial subject of his ensuing discourse. This, therefore, is the importance and natural order of the words, But we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, who was for a little while made lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that he by the grace of God might taste death for every man. And the only reason of the transposition of the words consisteth in the apostles following the order of the things testified unto by the psalmist, first his humiliation, then his exaltation; and yet connecting that which he would next treat of unto that which was first laid down, passing by the other as now sufficiently confirmed.
(3.) The general design of the words and their order being cleared, we shall open them in particular, seeing that besides the application of the testimony of the psalmist unto the Lord Jesus now vindicated, there is an assertion in them containing that which of all other things was of most difficult acceptation with the Jews, upon the account whereof the apostle confirms it with many reasons in the verses following, to the end of this chapter. And, indeed, we have here the sum of the gospel and the doctrine of it, concerning the person and office of the Messiah, asserted and vindicated from the prejudicate opinions of many of the Jews, under these two heads:
[1.] That the salvation and deliverance that God had promised and intended to accomplish by the Messiah was spiritual and eternal, from sin, death, Satan, and hell, ending in everlasting glory; not temporal and carnal, with respect unto the world and the concomitants of it in this life, as they vainly imagined.
[2.] That this salvation could be no otherwise wrought nor brought about but by the incarnation, suffering, and death of the Messiah; not in especial by arms, war, and mighty power, as the people were of old led into Canaan under the conduct of Joshua, the captain of that salvation, and as some of them expected yet to be saved and delivered by the Messiah. Now, the apostle strengthening his discourse by multiplicity of reasons and arguments, he doth not only in these words apply his testimony to what he had before proposed unto confirmation, namely, the subjection of the world to come unto Christ, but also lays in it the springs of those two other principles which we have mentioned, and whose proof and confirmation in the next verses he pursues.
Sundry things, as we have partly seen, are contained in the words; as,
[1.] the exinanition and humiliation of Christ: We see Jesus for a little while made lower, and brought into a more indigent condition, than the angels are, or ever were, obnoxious unto. [2.] The general end of that exinanition and depression of Jesus; it was that he might suffer death.
[3.] His exaltation unto power and authority over all things, in particular the world to come: crowned with glory and honor.
[4.] A numerous amplification subjoined of the end of his depression and the death that it tended unto;
1st. From the cause of it, the grace of God;
2dly. The nature of it, he was to taste of death;
3dly. The end of it, it was for others; and,
4thly. Its extent, for all: That he by the grace of God might taste death for all.
[1.] . for , an adversative, intimating the introduction of one singular person in opposition to him or them spoken of in the end of the foregoing verse, We see not yet all things put under his feet (which some, against the whole context, apply unto Christ), but we see Jesus. Had the same person been spoken of in both verses, the expression would have been, , but we see him; but a new antecedent being here introduced, but we see Jesus, another person is substituted as the subject spoken of; as the Syriac version declares, We see him, that it is Jesus
How and in what sense he was made lower than the angels hath been declared in opening the words as they lie in the , comprised in that testimony of the psalmist. Only it may be inquired whether this exinanition of Christ, or minoration in respect of angels, did consist merely in his incarnation and participation of human nature, which in general is esteemed beneath angelical, or in the misery and anxiety which in that nature he conflicted withal. And the apostle seems not absolutely to intend the former,
1st. Because he speaks of Jesus as the subject of this minoration. Now that name denotes the Son of God as incarnate, who is supposed so to be when he is said to be made less than the angels.
2dly. Because the human nature, in the very instant of its union unto the person of the Son of God, was absolutely advanced above the angelical, and might have immediately been possessed of glory if other works in it had not been to be performed. And yet neither doth it intend the low condition wherein he was placed exclusively to his incarnation, though that be afterwards (Heb 2:14) particularly spoken unto, but his being incarnate and brought forth, and in that condition wherein he was exposed to suffering, and so consequently to death itself. And thus was he made less than angels in part in that nature which he assumed. He was obnoxious unto all the infirmities which attend it, as hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, sorrow, grief; and exposed unto all the miseries from without that any person partaker of that nature is obnoxious unto; and, in sum, death itself: from all which miseries angels are excepted. This we see, know, and grant to have been the state and condition of Jesus.
But saith he, This was but for a little while, during his conversation with us on the earth, ending at his death.The apostle knew that he had now fixed upon that which of all things the Jews most stumbled at, the low and mean and despised condition of Jesus, they having inveterate prejudicate opinions of another manner of state and condition for the Messiah; wherefore he immediately subjoins the end why he was humbled into this condition, which he first explains, and then vindicates the necessity of it.
[2.] The end, then, is, , The suffering of death. He was so humbled that he might suffer death. This yet more displeased the Jews; the necessity whereof he immediately proves, adding by the way,
[3.] To complete the application of the testimony produced, his exaltation upon his suffering, he was crowned with glory and honor; referring us to the testimony itself to declare what was contained in that exaltation, namely, an absolute dominion over all things, God only excepted, and so, consequently, over the world to come, that was not put in subjection to angels. And in these words the apostle closeth his argument for the excellency of Christ above the angels from the subjection of all things unto him, and proceeds,
[4.] To the amplification of that end of the humiliation of Christ which he had before intimated, and that in four things:
1st. In the impulsive and efficient cause, which in the acts of Gods will are coincident: . for , denoting the final cause of what was before asserted, relating to the whole clause following. That which is here called , the grace of God, is elsewhere explained by . , Tit 2:11, The saving grace of God. And sometimes it is termed his and , Tit 3:4, his goodness, kindness, benignity, and love of mankind; absolutely, his , Joh 3:16, Rom 5:8, 1Jn 3:16, love, intense love; also his , Eph 1:5, his good pleasure, from the riches of his grace, Eph 1:7; and his , Eph 1:9, Rom 8:28, or purpose of his will, being the same with his and , Rom 8:29-30, his predesignation and predestination of men unto grace and glory. From all which it appears what this , or grace of God is, that was the moving and impulsive cause of the death of Christ; even the gracious, free, sovereign purpose of the will of God, suited unto and arising from his natural grace, love, goodness, benignity, pity, mercy, compassion, exerting themselves therein. It was not out of any anger or displeasure of God against Jesus, in whom his soul was always well pleased; not out of any disregard unto him, whom he designed hereby to be crowned with glory and honor; but out of his love, kindness, and goodness towards others, who could no otherwise be brought unto glory, as in the next verses the apostle declares, that he thus appointed him to die.
2dly. In the manner of his death: , that he should taste of death, so die as to experience the sorrows, bitterness, and penalties of death. To taste of death is, first, really to die; not in appearance or pretense, in opinion or show, as some foolishly of old blasphemed about the death of Christ, which could have had no other fruit but a shadow of redemption, a deliverance in opinion. See the phrase used, Mar 9:1, Shall not taste of death; that is, not die. And that which is called, to see death, Joh 8:51, is called to taste of death, Joh 8:52, where the phrase is applied to the second death, or death eternal. And it being death which was threatened unto those for whom he died, and which they should have undergone, he really tasted of that death also. So, secondly, it is intimated that there was bitterness in the death he underwent. Himself compares unto a cup, whose bitterness he declares by his aversation from it, considered absolutely and without reference unto that hand of the will of God wherein it was held out unto him, Mat 26:39; which , or , cup, was his lot or potion, Psa 16:5, that which prepared for him by his Father. And by the same metaphor he calls the will of God his meat, which he tasted of in the doing and suffering of it. To taste of death, as is known, is an Hebraism. So the rabbins speak, Beresh. Rab. sect. 9, ; The first Adam was worthy that he should not taste of death, or die. And it compriseth somewhat more than merely to die; it expresseth also to find out and experience what is in death. And is sometimes rendered by , to know, 2Sa 19:36; and sometimes the substantive by , understanding, Job 12:20. So that Christ by tasting of death had experience, knew what was in death, as threatened unto sinners. He found out and understood what bitterness was in that cup wherein it was given him. To which purpose the rabbins have a proverb in Jalkut. fol. 265, ; He that eateth of the pot knoweth the taste of the meat that is in it.Thus when Agag thought he should escape a violent death by the sword, he expresseth his joy by , 1Sa 15:32, The bitterness of death is removed, or taken away. Though die he must, yet he thought he should not taste the bitterness of death, or die by the sword. Thirdly, His conquest over death may be also intimated in this expression: for though the phrase, to taste of death, be used concerning other persons also, yet as applied unto Christ, the event showeth that it was only a thorough taste of it that he had; he neither was nor could be defined under the power of it, Act 2:24. And so is the word to taste used; Act 6:4 of this epistle. And thus by the grace of God did he taste of death.
3dly. The end of this his tasting of death, it was for others; . Of the extent of this end of his death, expressed in that word , we shall speak afterwards; for the present we consider how he died , for them, for whom he died. , is either pro, or super, or supra, for, or above, or over. The latter signification belongs not unto this place. As it signifies , for, it is used sometimes as , propter, and with respect unto persons is as much as alicujus causa, for his sake, or in alicujus gratiam, or bonum, for his good and advantage; sometimes as , in the stead of another. And this is the constant and inviolable sense of in Greek, pro in Latin, where the suffering of one for another is expressed by it, And that also is the constant sense of the Hebrew , when used in that case. Some instances on each word will illustrate our intention. Thus David expresseth his desire to have died in the stead of Absalom, that he might have been preserved alive: 2Sa 19:1, , Who will grant me to die, I for thee, my son Absalom? that is, in thy stead, or so that thou mightest be alive. So Isa 43:4. And by that word is still expressed the succeeding of one to another in government, or reigning in the stead of him that deceased, 1Ki 3:7, 2Sa 10:1; and in general, children succeeding in the place and room of their fathers, Num 3:12. So that to die , for another, is to die in his stead the death he should have died, that he might live, or in general to be substituted in the room and place of another. So when Jehu commanded his officers to slay the priests and worshippers of Baal, he tells them that if any one should let any one of them escape, , his life should go for his life, or he should die in his stead, 2Ki 10:24. So is used, Rom 5:7, expressing the act of an , one that lays down his life instead of another; as Damon for Pythias, and Nisus for Euryalus, Me, me, adsum qui feci. See 1Pe 1:20-21. And it is explained by , perpetually denoting a substitution, where opposition can have no place. See Mat 20:28; Mar 10:45; 1Ti 2:6, . Pro, also, as in this case is to be rendered, hath no other signification. So often in the poet:
Hanc tibi Eryx meliorem animam pro morte Daretis Persolvo
….. AEn. 5:483.
He slew the ox and sacrificed it to Eryx instead of Dares, who was taken from him. And Mezentius upon the death of Lausus his son, who undertook the fight with AEneas, upon the wounding of his father, being slain himself,
Tantane me tenuit vivendi, nate, voluptas,
Ut pro me hostili paterer succedere dextrae,
Quem genui? tuane haec genitor per vulnera servor,
Morte tua vivens? AEn. 10:846.
Pro me, in my stead. And of Palinurus, by whose death the rest of his companions escaped, AEn. 5:815,
Unam pro multis dabitur caput.
So the Comedian, Ter. And. I. 2:28,
Verberibua caesum to in pistrinum, Dave, dedam usque ad necem; Ea lege atque omine, ut, si inde to exemerim, ego pro te molam: grind in thy stead. And Juvenal to the same purpose of the Decii, Sat. 8:254,
Plebeiae Deciorum animae, plebeia fuerunt Nomina. Pro totis legionibus hi tamen, et pr Omnibus auxiliis atque omni plebe Latina, Sufficiunt diis infernis.
They were accepted in sacrifice for or instead of all the rest. So did they express their doing or suffering who cast themselves into danger in the stead of others, that they might go free, as those who sacrificed themselves, like Menoeceus, for the safety of their country; as Papinius expresses his design, Thebaid. lib. 10:762,
Armorum superi, tuque o qui funere tanto Indulges mihi, Phoebe, mori, date gaudia Thebis, Quae pepigi, et toto quae sanguine prodigus emi;
of which afterwards.
In the common constant use of these words, then, to die for another, signifies to die in his room and stead. And this the Jews understood in the use of their sacrifices, where the life of the beast was accepted in the stead of the life of the sinner. Thus Christ tasted of death . He was, by the grace and wisdom of God, substituted as a mediator, surety, , in their stead, to undergo the death which they should have undergone, that they might go free, as we shall see in the following verses.
4thly. This dying of Christ is said to be . The word is either of the masculine or neuter gender; and in the latter it seems to have been taken by them who for , read , as some Syriac copies do still, and Ambrose ad Gradianum, with some other of the ancients, intimating that Christ died for every thing, God only excepted, alluding it may be unto Eph 1:10, of which place we have spoken before. For we may not suppose it a corruption of the Nestorians, when some read so before their days; nor will the words so read give any countenance to their error, none affirming that Christ died any otherwise than in his human nature, though he who is God died therein. But this conjecture is groundless and inconsistent with the signification of the preposition insisted on, which will not allow that he be said to die for any but those in whose stead he died, and which, therefore, in themselves were obnoxious to death, as he declares, Eph 1:14-15. , then, is put for by an enallage of number, the singular for the plural, for all men; that is, all those many sons which God by his death intended to bring unto glory, Eph 1:10; those sanctified by him, whom he calls his brethren, Eph 1:11-12, and children given him by God, Eph 1:13; whom by death he delivers from the fear of death, Eph 1:14-15; even all the seed of Abraham, Eph 1:16.
(4.) And thus, we hope, our whole interpretation of these verses receives light from as well as brings some light unto the text; and that we need no argument to confirm it but its own suitableness throughout to the context and design of the apostle. That wherein divers worthy expositors are otherwise minded and differ from us, is the application of the words of the psalm immediately unto the person of Christ; which they say are referred unto him only by way of allusion. Now, though our exposition sufficiently confirm and strengthen itself by its own evidence, yet because divers learned men, whoso judgment is much to be regarded, have given another sense of the words than that embraced by us, I shall by some further considerations confirm that part of our exposition which is by them called into question, premising unto them, for the further clearing of the place, what we grant in reference unto the sense by them contended for:
[1.] I grant that the psalmists design in general is to set forth the goodness, kindness, love, and care of God unto mankind; so that in these words, What is man, and the son of man, though he principally respects the instance of the person of the Messiah, yet he doth it not exclusively to the nature of man in others, but hath a special regard unto mankind in general, in contradistinction unto other outwardly more glorious works of the hands of God. But it is the especial instance of the person of the Messiah wherein alone he undertakes to make good his assertion of mankinds pre-eminence.
[2.] I also grant that he hath respect unto the dignity and honor collated on the first man at his creation, not directly and intentionally, as his chiefest scope, but by way of allusion, as it did prefigure and obscurely represent that great glory and honor which mankind was to be advanced unto in the person of the Messiah; but that primarily and directly he, and he alone, according to our exposition, is intended in the psalm; for,
1st. That the whole psalm is prophetical of the Messiah, the passages out of it reported in the New Testament and applied unto him do make evident and unquestionable. See Mat 21:16, 1Co 15:27, with this place. So that he must needs be the man and son of man therein treated of, and who alone did make to cease the enemy and self-avenger, 1Co 15:2; as the apostle declares, 1Co 15:14-15, of this chapter.
2dly. The general scope of the psalm will admit of no other interpretation. The psalmist, on his contemplation of the great glory of God in framing the heavens and all the host of them, especially those which then appeared unto him, falls into an admiration of his wisdom, goodness, and love in that which was far greater and more excellent, as that wherein his glory was more exalted; which he rejoiceth and triumpheth in, as that wherein his own and the interest of all others did lie. Now, this could not be either the state of man as fallen by sin, which is far enough from a matter of exultation and joy, nor yet the state of Adam in innocency, in no privilege whereof, without a restitution by Christ, have we share or interest.
3dly. There are not any words in the testimony that can properly be applied unto any other man, or be verified in him; not in Adam at his first creation, not in mankind in general, but only in the instance of the person of Christ. For how was Adam diminished and made less than angels, and therein depressed from another state and condition than that he had, or was due to him? or how can this be said of mankind in general, or of believers in a special sense? And how could this be spoken of them as to continue for a little while, seeing the nature of man, in itself considered, is for ever beneath the angelical? Again, if the apostles interpretation be allowed, that expression, He hath put all things under his feet, is universal, and extends unto all the works of Gods hands, and among them to the world to come; and these were never put in subjection to Adam nor any other man, the man Christ Jesus excepted. And this also the apostle plainly avers, 1Co 15:8. So that the scope of the place, context of the words, and importance of the expression, do all direct us unto the Messiah, and to him alone.
4thly. The uncertainty and mutual contradictions, yea, self-contradictions of the most who apply the words of the psalmist directly unto any other but Christ, may serve further to fix us unto this interpretation, liable to none of those inconveniences which they cast themselves upon. Some would have a double literal sense in the words; the one principal, relating unto Adam or man in general; the other less principal, or subordinate, respecting Christ: which is upon the matter to affirm that the words have no sense at all; for those words which have not one certain determinate sense, as those have not which have two, have indeed no true proper sense at all, for their sense is their determinate signification of any thing. Some would have the literal sense to respect mankind in general, and what is affirmed in them to be mystically applied unto Christ. How far this is from truth we have already declared, by showing that the words cannot so in any measure be verified or made good. By man, some understand Adam in his integrity; but how he can be called the son of man I know not. Besides, how was his honor not to be thought of or mentioned without the remembrance of his sin and shameful fall such a cause of rejoicing and exultation unto the psalmist? Some understand man in his corrupted condition; which how far he is from the things here mentioned need not be declared. Can we suppose the apostle would prove the subjection of the world to come unto Christ by a testimony principally respecting them who have no interest in it? Some understand believers as restored in Christ; which is true consequentially and in respect of participation, Rev 2:26-27, but not antecedently unto the investiture of the honor that they are made partakers of in the person of Christ. Besides, which is the great absurdity of this interpretation, they all affirm that the same words are used to express and confirm things directly contrary and adverse unto one another. For those words in the psalmist, Thou hast made him little less than the angels, they would have to signify the exaltation of man in his creation, being made nigh unto and little less than angels; and in the application of them by the apostle unto Christ, they acknowledge that they denote depression, minoration, humiliation, or exinanition. How the same words in the same place can express contrary things, prove the exaltation of one and the depression of another, is very hard if not impossible to be understood. Besides, they are compelled to interpret the same phrase in diverse senses, as well as the same sentence in contrary; for those words in the psalmist, , as applied unto man, they make to denote quantity or quality, as unto Christ, time or duration; which that in the same place they cannot do both is needless to prove. But, as we said, our exposition is wholly free from these entanglements, answering the words of the psalmist, and suited to the words and context of the apostle throughout.
Schlichtingius or Crellius, in his comment on these words, would fain lay hold of an objection against the deity of Christ, p. 112.
Hinc videmus, saith he, cum D. Auctor adeo sollicite laboret, et Scripturae dictis pugnet eum qui angelis fuerit ratione naturae minor, nempe Christum debuisse suprema gloria et honore coranari, angelosque dignitate longe superare; nec ipsi auctori nec cuipiam Christianorum ad quos scribit, divinae praeter humanam in Christo naturae in mentem venisse, nam si hanc in Christo agnovissent, nullo negotio etiam Christum angelis longe praestare, naturamque humanam ei minime obstare vidissent: quid quaeso tanto molimine, tantoque argumentorum apparatu ad rem omnibus apertissimam persuadendam opus fuisset? Quid argumentis aliunde conquisitis laborat auctor, cum uno ictu, unica naturae istius divinae mentione rem totam conficere potuisset?
The whole ground of this fallacy lies in a supposition that the apostle treateth of the person of Christ absolutely and in himself considered; which is evidently false. He speaks of him in respect of the office he undertook as the mediator of the new covenant; in which respect he was both made less than the angels, not only on the account of his nature, but of the condition wherein he discharged his duty, and also made or exalted above them, by grant from his Father; whereas in his divine nature he was absolutely and infinitely so from the instant of the creation. And whereas those to whom he wrote did hear that he was, in the discharge of his office, for a little while made much lower than the angels, it was not in vain for him to prove, by arguments and testimonies, that in the execution of the same office he was also exalted above them, that part of his work being finished for which he was made lower than they for a season. And most needful it was for him so to do in respect of the Hebrews, who, boasting of the ministry of angels in the giving of the law, were to be convinced of the excellency of the author of the gospel, as such, in the discharge of his work, above them. And the express mention of his divine nature was in this place altogether needless and improper, nor would it have proved the thing that he intended; for how easy had it been for the Jews to have replied, that notwithstanding that, they saw in how low an outward condition he ministered upon the earth, and therefore that would not prove his exaltation above angels in the discharge of his office, seeing notwithstanding that he was evidently made lower than they in that office! It would also have been improper for him in this place to have made any mention thereof, seeing the proof of the excellency of his person, absolutely considered, was nothing unto the business he had now in hand. And it was likewise every way needless, he having so abundantly proved and vindicated his divine nature in the chapter foregoing. Now, to take an argument against a thing from the apostles silence of it in one place, where the mention of it was improper, useless, and needless, he having fully expressed the same matter elsewhere, yea, but newly before, is an evidence of a bad or barren cause. Of the like importance is that which he afterwards adds, p. 115,
Quemadmodum autem Jesus homo verus, et naturali conditione caeteris hominibus similis esse debuit; neque enim eorum servator est, qui natura et dii sunt et homines, sed hominum tantum;
for we shall demonstrate that it was needful he should have a divine nature who was to suffer and to save them who had only a human. And if this man had acknowledged that end and effect of his suffering, without which we know it would have been of no advantage unto them for whom he suffered, he also would believe the same.
We say not any thing of the sense of the Jews on this place of the psalmist. They seem wholly to have lost the design of the Holy Ghost in it, and therefore, in their accustomed manner, to embrace fables and trifles. The Talmudists ascribe those words, What is man? unto some of the angels, expressing their envy and indignation at his honor upon his first creation. The later doctors, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra, make application of it unto man in general, wherein they are followed by too many Christians, unto whom the apostle had been a better guide. But we may here also see what is further tendered unto us for our instruction; as,
I. The respect, care, love, and grace of God, unto mankind, expressed in the person and mediation of Jesus Christ is a matter of singular and eternal admiration.
We have before showed, from the words of the psalmist, that such in general is the condescension of God, to have any regard of man, considering the infinite excellency of the properties of his nature, as manifested in his great and glorious works. That now proposed followeth from the apostles application of the psalmists words unto the person of Christ; and consequently from the regard of God unto us in his mediation. And this is such, as that the apostle tells us that at the last day it shall be his great glory, and that he will be admired in all them that believe, 2Th 1:10. When the work of his grace shall be fully perfected in and towards them, then the glory of his grace appeareth and is magnified for ever. This is that which the admiration of the psalmist tends unto and rests in, that God should so regard the nature of man as to take it into union with himself in the person of his Son, and in that nature, humbled and exalted, to work out the salvation of all them that believe on him. There are other ways wherein the respect of God towards man doth appear, even in the effects of his holy, wise providence over him. He causeth his sun to shine and his rain to fail upon him, Mat 5:45. He leaves not himself without witness towards us,
in that he doth good, and gives us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, Act 14:17.
And these ways of his providence are singularly admirable. But this way of his grace towards us in the person of his Son assuming our nature into union with himself, is that wherein the exceeding and unspeakable riches of his glory and wisdom are made manifest. So the apostle expresseth it, Eph 1:17-23. He hath that to declare unto them, which, because of its greatness, glory, and beauty, they are no way able of themselves to receive or comprehend. And therefore he prays for them that they may have the spirit of wisdom and revelation, to give them the knowledge of Christ, or that God by his Spirit would make them wise to apprehend, and give them a gracious discovery of what he proposeth to them; as also, that hereby they may enjoy the blessed effect of an enlightened understanding, without which they will not discern the excellency of this matter. And what is it that they must be helped, assisted, prepared for to understand, in any measure? what is the greatness, the glory of it, that can no otherwise be discerned? Why,saith he, marvel not at the necessity of this preparation: that which I propose unto you is the glory of God, that wherein he will principally be glorified, here and unto eternity; and it is the riches of that glory, the treasures of it.God hath in other things set forth and manifested his glory; but yet as it were by parts and parcels. One thing hath declared his power, another his goodness and wisdom, and that in part, with reference unto that particular about which they have been exercised; but in this he hath drawn forth, displayed, manifested all the riches and treasures of his glory, so that his excellencies are capable of no greater exaltation. And there is also in this work the unspeakable greatness of his power engaged, that no property of his nature may seem to be uninterested in this matter. Now whereunto doth all this tend? Why, it is all to give a blessed and eternal inheritance unto believers, unto the hope and expectation whereof they are called by the gospel. And by what way or means is all this wrought and brought about? Even by the working of God in Jesus Christ; in his humiliation, when he died; and in his exaltation, in his resurrection, putting all things under his feet, crowning him with glory and honor; which the apostle shows by a citation of this place, of the psalmist: for all this is out of Gods regard unto man; it is for the church, which is the body of Christ, and his fullness. So full of glory, such an object of eternal admiration, is this work of the love and grace of God; which, as Peter tells us, the very angels themselves desire to look into, 1Pe 1:12. And this further appears,
First, Because all Gods regard of man in this way is a fruit of mere sovereign grace and condescension. And all grace is admirable, especially the grace of God; and that so great grace, as the Scripture expresseth it. There was no consideration of any thing without God himself that moved him hereunto. He had glorified himself, as the psalmist shows, in other works of his hands, and he could have rested in that glory. Man deserved no such thing of him, being worthless and sinful. It was all of grace, both in the head and members. The human nature of Christ neither did nor could merit the hypostatical union. It did not, because being made partaker of it from the instant of its conception, all antecedent operations that might procure it were prevented; and a thing cannot be merited by any after it is freely granted antecedently unto any deserts. Nor could it do so; hypostatical union could be no reward of obedience, being that which exceeds all the order of things and rules of remunerative justice. The assumption, then, of our nature into personal union with the Son of God, was an act of mere free, sovereign, unconceivable grace. And this is the foundation of all the following fruits of Gods regard unto us; and that being of grace, so must they be also. Whatever God doth for us in and by Jesus Christ as made man for us, which is all that he so doth, it must, I say, be all of grace, because his being made man was so. Had there been any merit, any desert on our part, any preparation for or disposition unto the effects of this regard, had our nature, or that portion of it which was sanctified and separated to be united unto the Son of God, any way procured or prepared itself for its union and assumption, things had fallen under some rules of justice and equality, whereby they might be apprehended and measured; but all being of grace, they leave place unto nothing but eternal admiration and thankfulness.
Secondly, Had not God been thus mindful of man, and visited him in the person of his Son incarnate, every one partaker of that nature must have utterly perished in their lost condition. And this also renders the grace of it an object of admiration. We are not only to look at what God takes us unto by this visitation, but to consider also what he delivers us from. Now, this is a great part of that vile and base condition which the psalmist wonders that God should have regard unto, namely, that we had sinned and come short of his glory, and thereby exposed ourselves unto eternal misery. In that condition we must have perished for ever, had not God freed us by this visitation. It had been great grace to have taken an innocent, a sinless man into glory; great grace to have freed a sinner from misery, though he should never be brought to the enjoyment of the least positive good: but to free a sinner from the utmost and most inconceivable misery in eternal ruin, and to bring him unto the highest happiness in eternal glory, and all this in a way of mere grace, this is to be admired.
Thirdly, Because it appeareth that God is more glorified in the humiliation and exaltation of the Lord Christ, and the salvation of mankind thereby, than in any of or all the works of the first creation. How glorious those works are, and how mightily they set forth the glory of God, we have before declared. But, as the psalmist intimates, God rested not in them. He had yet a further design, to manifest his glory in a more eminent and singular manner; and this he did by minding and visiting of man in Christ Jesus. None almost is so stupid, but on the first view of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, he will confess that their fabric, beauty, and order, are wonderful, and that the glory of their framer and builder is for ever to be admired in them. But all this comes short of that glory which ariseth unto God from this condescension and grace. And therefore it may be the day will come, and that speedily, wherein these heavens, and this whole old creation, shall be utterly dissolved and brought to nothing; for why should they abide as a monument of his power unto them who, enjoying the blessed vision of him, shall see and know it far more evidently and eminently in himself? However, they shall undoubtedly in a short time cease as to their use, wherein at present they are principally subservient unto the manifestation of the glory of God. But the effects of this regard of God to man shall abide unto eternity, and the glory of God therein. This is the foundation of heaven, as it is a state and condition, it denotes the glorious presence of God among his saints and holy ones. Without this there would be no such heaven; all that is there, and all the glory of it, depend thereon. Take away this foundation, and all that beauty and glory disappears. Nothing, indeed, would be taken from God, who ever was and ever will be eternally blessed in his own self-sufficiency. But the whole theater which he hath erected for the manifestation of his glory unto eternity depends on this his holy condescension and grace; which assuredly render them meet for ever to be admired and adored.
This, then, let us exercise ourselves unto. Faith having infinite, eternal, incomprehensible things proposed unto it, acts itself greatly in this admiration. We are everywhere taught that we now know but imperfectly, in part; and that we see darkly, as in a glass: not that the revelation of these things in the word is dark and obscure, for they are fully and clearly proposed, but that such is the nature of the things themselves, that we are not in this life able to comprehend them; and therefore faith doth principally exercise itself in a holy admiration of them. And indeed no love or grace will suit our condition but that which is incomprehensible. We find ourselves by experience to stand in need of more grace, goodness, love, and mercy, than we can look into, search to the bottom of, or fully understand. But when that which is infinite and incomprehensible is proposed unto us, then all fears are overwhelmed, and faith finds rest with assurance. And if our admiration of these things be an act, an effect, a fruit of faith, it will be of singular use to endear God unto our hearts, and to excite them unto thankful obedience; for who would not love and delight in the eternal fountain of this inconceivable grace? and what shall we render unto him who hath done more for us than we are any way able to think or conceive?
II. Observe also, that such was the inconceivable love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, unto the souls of men, that he was free and willing to condescend unto any condition for their good and salvation.
That was the end of all this dispensation. And the Lord Christ was not humbled and made less than the angels without his own will and consent. His will and good liking concurred unto this work. Hence, when the eternal counsel of this whole matter is mentioned, it is said of him, as the Wisdom of the Father, that he rejoiced in the habitable part of the earth, and his delights were with the sons of men, Pro 8:31. He delighted in the counsel of redeeming and saving them by his own humiliation and suffering. And the Scripture makes it evident upon these two considerations:
First, In that it shows that what he was to do and what he was to undergo in this work were proposed unto him, and that he willingly accepted of the terms and conditions of it. Psa 40:6, God says unto him, that sacrifice and offering could not do this great work, burnt-offering and sin-offering could not effect it; that is, no kind of offerings or sacrifices instituted by the law were available to take away sin and to save sinners, as our apostle expounds that place at large, Heb 10:1-9, confirming his exposition with sundry arguments taken from their nature and effects. What, then, doth God require of him, that this great design of the salvation of sinners may be accomplished? Even that he himself should make his soul an offering for sin, pour out his soul unto death, and thereby bear the sin of many, Isa 53:10; Isa 53:12; that seeing the law was weak through the flesh, that is, by reason of our sins in the flesh, he himself should take upon him the likeness of sinful flesh, and become an offering for sin in the flesh, Rom 8:3; that he should be made of a woman, made under the law, if he would redeem them that were under the law, Gal 4:4-5; that he should
make himself of no reputation, and take upon him the form of a servant, and be made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, humble himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, Php 2:7-8.
These things were proposed unto him, which he was to undergo, if he would deliver and save mankind. And how did he entertain this proposal? how did he like these conditions? I was not, saith he, rebellious, neither turned away back, Isa 1:5. He declined them not, he refused none of the terms that were proposed unto him, but underwent them in a way of obedience; and that with willingness, alacrity, and delight. Psa 40:6-8 : Mine ears hast thou opened, saith he; or prepared a body for me, wherein I may yield this obedience,(that the apostle declares to be the sense of the expression, Hebrews 10.). This obedience could not be yielded without a body, wherein it was performed. And whereas to hear, or to have the ear opened, is in the Scripture to be prepared unto obedience, the psalmist in that one expression, Mine ears hast thou opened, compriseth both these, even that Christ had a body prepared, by a synecdoche of a part for the whole, and also in that body he was ready to yield obedience unto God in this great work, which could not be accomplished by sacrifices and burnt-offerings. And this readiness and willingness of Christ unto this work is set out under three heads in the ensuing words:
1. His tender of himself unto this work. Then said he, Lo, I come, in the volume of thy book it is written of me; This thou hast promised, this promise, Gen 3:15, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent; and now thou hast given me, in the fullness of time, and prepared me a body for that purpose; lo, I come, willing and ready to undertake it.
2. In the frame of his mind in this engagement. He entered into it with great delight: I delight to do thy will, O my God. He did not delight in the thoughts of it only of old, as before, and then grow heavy and sorrowful when it was to be undertaken; but he went unto it with cheerfulness and delight, although he knew what sorrow and grief it would cost him before it was brought unto perfection.
3. From the principle whence this obedience and delight did spring; which was a universal conformity of his soul, mind, and will, unto the law, mind, and will of God: Thy law is in my heart, in the midst of my bowels; Every thing in me is compliant with thy will and law; there is in me a universal conformity thereunto.Being thus prepared, thus principled, he considered the glory that was set before him, the glory that would redound unto God by his becoming a captain of salvation, and that would ensue unto himself. He endured the cross and despised the shame, Heb 12:2. He armed himself with those considerations against the hardships and sufferings that he was to meet withal; and the apostle Peter adviseth us to arm ourselves with the like mind when we are to suffer, 1Pe 4:1. By all which it appears that the good-will and love of Jesus Christ were in this matter of being humbled and made less than angels; as the apostle says expressly that he humbled himself, and made himself of no reputation, Php 2:7-8, as well as it is here said that God humbled him, or made him less than angels.
Secondly, The Scripture peculiarly assigns this work unto the love and condescension of Christ himself; for although it abounds in setting forth the love of the Father in the designing and contriving this work, and sending his Son into the world, yet it directs us unto the love of the Lord Christ himself as the next immediate cause of his engaging into it and performance of it. So saith the apostle, Gal 2:20, I live by the faith of the Son of God, that is, by faith in him, who loved me, and gave himself for me. It was the love of Christ that moved him to give himself for us; which is excellently expressed in that doxology, Rev 1:5-6, blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
All this was the fruit of his love, and therefore unto him is all praise and honor to be given and ascribed. And so great was this love of Christ, that he declined nothing that was proposed unto him. This the apostle calls his grace, 2Co 8:9,
Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
He condescended unto a poor and low condition, and to suffer therein, for our good, that we might be made partakers of the riches of the grace of God. And this was the love of the person of Christ, because it was in and wrought equally in him both before and after his assumption of our nature.
Now, the Holy Ghost makes an especial application of this truth unto us, as unto one part of our obedience: Php 2:5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; and what that mind was he declares in the ensuing verses, laying out his infinite condescension in taking our nature upon him, and submitting to all misery, reproach, and death itself for our sakes. If this mind were in Christ, should not we endeavor after a readiness and willingness to submit ourselves unto any condition for his glory?
Forasmuch, saith Peter, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, 1Pe 4:1.
Many difficulties will lie in our way, many reasonings will rise up against it, if we consult with flesh and blood; but, saith he, Arm yourselves with the same mind that was in Christ; get your souls strengthened and fenced by grace against all oppositions, that you may follow him and imitate him. Some that profess his name will suffer nothing for him. If they may enjoy him or his ways in peace and quietness, well and good; but if persecution arise for the gospel, immediately they fall away. These have neither lot nor portion in this matter. Others, the most, the best, have a secret loathness and unwillingness to condescend unto a condition of trouble and distress for the gospel. Well, if we are unwilling hereunto, what doth the Lord Christ lose by it? Will it be any real abatement of his honor or glory? Will he lose his crown or kingdom thereby? So far as suffering in this world is needful for any of his blessed ends and purposes, he will not want them who shall be ready even to die for his names sake. But what if he had been unwilling to be humbled and to suffer for us? If the same mind had been in Christ as is in us, what had been our state and condition unto eternity? In this grace, love, and willingness of Christ, lies the foundation of all our happiness, of all our deliverance from misery and ruin; and shall we reckon ourselves to have an interest therein, and yet find ourselves altogether unready to a conformity unto him? Besides, the Lord Christ was really rich when he made himself poor for our sakes; he was in the form of God when he took upon him the form of a servant, and became for us of no reputation. Nothing of this was due to him or belonged unto him, but merely on our account. But we are in ourselves really poor, and obnoxious unto infinitely more miseries for our own sins than what he calls us unto for his name. Are we unwilling to suffer a little, light, transitory trouble in this world for him, without whose sufferings for us we must have suffered misery, and that eternal, whether we would or no? And I speak not so much about suffering itself as about the mind and frame of spirit wherewith we undergo it. Some will suffer when they cannot avoid it, but so unwillingly, so uncheerfully, as makes it evident that they aim at nothing, and act from no principle, but merely that they dare not go against their convictions. But the mind that was in Christ will lead us unto it out of love unto him, with freedom and enlargedness of heart; which is required of us.
III. The blessed issue of the abasement of Jesus Christ, in his exaltation unto honor and glory, is an assured pledge of the final glory and blessedness of all that believe in him, whatever difficulties and dangers they may be exercised withal in the way.
His humiliation and exaltation, as we have seen, proceeded out of Gods condescension and love to mankind. His electing love, the eternal gracious purpose of his will to recover lost sinners, and to bring them unto the enjoyment of himself, was the ground of this dispensation; and therefore what he hath done in Christ is a certain pledge of what he will do in and for them also. He is not crowned with honor and glory merely for himself, but that he may be a captain of salvation, and bring others unto a participation of his glory. IV. Jesus Christ, as the mediator of the new covenant, hath absolute and supreme authority given unto him over all the works of God in heaven and earth.
This we have so fully manifested and insisted on upon the foregoing chapter, that we shall not here further pursue it; but only mind by the way, that blessed is the state and condition, great is the spiritual and eternal security of the church, seeing all things are under the very feet of its Head and Savior.
V. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only lord of the gospel state of the church, called under the old testament the world to come; and therefore he only hath power to dispose of all things in it relating unto that worship of God which it is to perform and celebrate.
It is not put into subjection unto any other, angels or men. This privilege was reserved for Christ; this honor is bestowed on the church. He is the only head, king, and lawgiver of it; and nothing is it to be taught to observe or do but what he hath commanded. But this will fall more directly under our consideration in the beginning of the next chapter.
VI. The Lord Jesus Christ in his death did undergo the penal sentence of the law, in the room and stead of them for whom he died.
Death was that which, by the sentence of the law, was due unto sin and sinners. For them did Christ die, and therein tasted of the bitterness of that death which they were to have undergone, or else the fruit of it could not have redounded unto them; for what was it towards their discharge, if that which they had deserved was not suffered, but somewhat else, wherein the least part of their concernment did lie? But this being done, certain deliverance and salvation will be the lot and portion of them, of all them, for whom he died; and that upon the rules of justice and righteousness on the part of Christ, though on theirs, of mere mercy and grace.
Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
Division II. Chaps. 2:5-4:13 The Glories and Humiliation of the Son of Man
Having considered our Blessed Lord from the standpoint of His deity, both as the Eternal Son and as the Son of God in Manhood, we are now called upon to think of Him in His humiliation as He entered into the experiences of humanity in order that He might become the Captain of our salvation. We should never forget that His humanity is as real as His deity. He was born of a virgin; a babe, to all outward appearances like any other, and a perfectly normal child, growing up from infancy to manhood, increasing in wisdom as He increased in stature, and was a sharer in all that pertained to human nature as originally created by God. And He has gone up to heaven as Man, so that we may properly sing:
He wears our nature on the throne.
But let us never forget His human nature was sinless throughout as was that of Adam before the fall. He did not come under Adams federal headship and so did not inherit his fallen estate. God alone was His Father, as we have already seen, and as Scripture abundantly bears witness.
But inasmuch as He was both God and Man in one Person, His humanity was not only innocent as was that of the first man, which was therefore subject to failure, but it was holy, repelling evil, for He was the second Man, the Lord from heaven. This precludes all possibility of sin or failure on His part.
Nevertheless, He entered into our human condition and circumstances, not when the race was unfallen but after the fall, when it had become bruised and battered by sin. So He passed, Himself sinless, through this life exposed to pain and sorrow, to hunger and weariness, to trial and temptation, and entered fully into all human experiences which did not involve personal demerit, dying at last upon a felons cross where Jehovah laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. While there was no sin in Him, our sins were made to meet upon Him, and He made full expiation for all our iniquities that we might be reconciled to God and justified from all things.
Section A. Heb 2:5-9
The Glory of the Son of Man and His Authority
For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the Son of Man, that Thou visitest Him? Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst Him with glory and honor, and didst set Him over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast 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. But now we see not yet all things put 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 should taste death for every man.
While angels are greater in power and might than man in his present circumstances, they remain but servants. It was never Gods purpose that the angels should be rulers over humanity. During the present age and throughout past dispensations, it has pleased God to use angels as His messengers in conveying His will to man. These glorious beings appeared to the patriarchs either to announce blessing or to warn of judgment. The law was given by the disposition of angels. By angelic guidance, the people of Israel were led through the wilderness, and during all the years of the theocracy angels appeared from time to time as representatives of the throne of God. When our blessed Lord Himself was here on earth angels came to minister unto Him, and when He comes into the world again, as we have seen in chapter 1, they will all worship Him. But it is not in the plan of God that they should administer the affairs of the divine government when the kingdom is actually established. Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the age to come. Notice it is age, not world; that is, it is not the cosmos as such that is in view, but the coming age of righteousness when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. No angel will rule in that day. But He whose glory was foretold in the eighth psalm will take the kingdom and rule in righteousness, for the certain place referred to in Heb 2:6 is, as we know, Psa 8:4-6, which is quoted here. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the Son of Man, that Thou visitest Him? For Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned Him with glory and honor. Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under His feet. If we turn back to the psalm we might not realize that it is Christ who is in view, particularly as we notice Heb 2:7-8 where all cattle and wild beasts, as well as fowls of the air and the fish of the sea, are said to be subjected to man. It might look as though it is but a confirmation of the Lords word to Adam the first, to whom He said, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Gen 1:28). But we know well that Adam forfeited his headship through sin, and now in the eighth psalm that headship is confirmed to One who is called the Son of Man, which Adam, of course, never was. The apostles use of the passage here in Hebrews makes it plain that it is the Last Adam to whom the psalm refers. And so, as we read these words, we think of Him who delighted in the title Son of Man because it speaks of Him as the appointed ruler over the whole earth, who is to deliver it from the bondage of corruption. He was made a little lower than the angels, that is, He became Man, and men in their present condition are inferior to angels, though when redemption is completed, we shall have a place higher than angels can ever aspire to. And already He who took that place of humility has been received up into heaven as Man and crowned with glory and honor, and by divine fiat set over all creation. For God has appointed Him Heir of all things and decreed that all shall be in subjection under His feet. He leaves nothing unsubjected to Him. His place is that of supreme authority.
But as we look around the world today, can we think for a moment that His authority is being exercised? We see not yet all things put under Him, and though many centuries have passed since this Epistle to the Hebrews was written, rebellion against God still characterizes this lower universe. The divine law is flouted. The grace of God is despised. His Word is refused. His Holy Spirit is ignored. His people are still called upon to suffer for righteousness sake. Surely all things are not yet put under Him! Such might well be the natural conclusion to which we would come if we looked only upon the things that are seen.
But when by the eye of faith, through the telescope of the Word, we pierce the heavens, we see Jesus, who once became a little lower than the angels with the view to the suffering of death, even now crowned with glory and honor. He sits exalted on the throne of the Eternal as a glorified Man at the right hand of the Majesty on high. God has set Him above all things, which is conclusive proof to us that all things shall yet be subjected to Him.
Notice the special reason given for His humiliation. He became a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death: that is, with this very object in view. It was impossible that Deity as such should die. If He would taste death for every man, He must become Man, for only as man could He die. This is the mystery set forth in that ancient type in Lev 14:5 where, in connection with the cleansing of the leper, the priest was instructed to take two birds alive and clean. One of the birds was to be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. The other was to be dipped in the blood of the dead bird and let loose in the open field. The two birds typified one Christ. The first speaks of Him as the Heavenly One who entered into the earthen vessel of humanity in order that He might die. The second speaks of Him as the Risen One who has returned to the heavens in all the value of His own most precious blood.
Then it is well to notice that after all it is not merely for every man that He tasted death. The context makes it plain that the all for which He died is in the neuter in the original. It might rightly be rendered, that He by the grace of God should taste death for everything. For through His death not only will sinners be saved and the world of redeemed men brought into eternal blessing, but the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and everything in heaven and earth at last brought into harmony with God. None shall fail of this reconciliation excepting those who deliberately prefer their sins to the salvation so freely offered.
Section B. Heb 2:10-18
The Perfecting of the Captain of our Salvation through Suffering
This section is one of the most precious in all the Epistle and requires careful consideration, for there is grave danger of misunderstanding some of its great declarations unless we are familiar with what the Word of God elsewhere reveals concerning the Person and work of the Lord Jesus.
If He would become Captain of our salvation, or, literally, File-leader of our salvation, the One who is Himself the Way of Life and leads us in that Way, He must be perfected through sufferings. But notice how His glory as Creator is insisted on when His sufferings are in view. It became Him, that is, it was consistent under the circumstances for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things-the same as in Colossians, All things were created by Him and for Him-if He would bring many sons into glory (and this we know is the very reason for which He came into the world), to be made perfect, not as to His character, but as to His Saviourhood, by sufferings. There was never any imperfection in Him as Man. He was always the Perfect One, but let it never be forgotten that the perfect life of Jesus would never have saved one poor sinner. In order to become Captain of salvation, that He might lead many sons to glory, He must go by way of Gethsemane and Golgotha, where He was perfected by sufferings. Apart from His bitter passion, there could be no redemption for lost men and women.
And in Heb 2:11 we have the glorious result of His sufferings. Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. To sanctify is to separate, to set apart. He set Himself apart in order that He might become our Saviour. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth (Joh 17:19). And now as having gone back to the glory from whence He came, He is Himself the Sanctifier of all His own. He has been made unto us wisdom, even righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Every believer has been set apart by Him and in Him to God the Father, and so it can be said of Him and of us, We are all of one. That is, I take it, all of one Father or of one family. And therefore He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Our poor hearts cannot but realize how worthless we have been and are, and how, if He were any other than He is, He might well be ashamed to own such as we as His brethren. But we have become partakers of His divine life, a life that is eternal and to which sin can never attach. And so He owns us gladly as His brethren, though, may I add, nowhere in Scripture is He spoken of as our brother. He says, Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am. But He whom we gladly own as Lord, in wondrous grace calls us His brothers.
In Psalm 22 we see Him hanging on the cross, the Forsaken One, drinking the wormwood and the gall, bearing the judgment due to our sins. In Psa 22:1-21 of that psalm He is seen alone, suffering at the hands of God what our guilt deserved. Then from Psa 22:22 on He is no longer alone, but as the Risen One is surrounded by multitudes who owe their salvation to His sufferings on the tree, and it is in resurrection He exclaims: I will declare Thy name unto My brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. This is the passage that is quoted in Heb 2:12 of our chapter; but for congregation we have the word church, a translation, as we know, of the Greek ekklesia, which was the Septuagint rendering for the Hebrew term translated congregation. It is the assembly of the redeemed, and in the midst of that assembly the Risen Christ takes His place as the Chief Chorister leading the praises of His peoples hearts.
He once trod the path of faith Himself, as implied in the quotation, in Heb 2:13, from Isa 8:17, I will put My trust in Him. As Man here on earth, He walked through the wilderness of this world with perfect confidence in the Father, looking on to the time when, surrounded by all His own, He could say, as quoted from the eighteenth verse of the same chapter (Isa 8:18), Behold, I and the children which Thou hast given Me. But it is not to Isaiah and his children that these words primarily apply. The prophet of old was but the type of the Lord Himself who spoke by the Spirit through Isaiah.
In Heb 2:14-15 we read: Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. It is necessary to give the most careful consideration to what is really stated here lest we, even though unintentionally, detract from the glory of the humanity of our blessed Lord. A casual reading of the first part of Heb 2:14 might suggest that our Saviour participated in everything that is connected with flesh and blood. Indeed, this has been the teaching of many. According to them, the Son of God assumed humanity with all its sinfulness and all its limitations of ignorance, so that even though they acknowledge that in some sense He was truly God manifest in flesh, yet with them it is Deity enshrouded in poor degraded sinful human nature; unable, therefore, to make Himself known in His fulness. But what we are really told here is that inasmuch as the children of faith are human beings, not angels, as the writer points out in Heb 2:16, so in order that He might be the true Goel or Kinsman-Redeemer, He in infinite grace became Man and thus took part of the same human nature. This does not in any sense imply that He took defiled human nature. This the Holy Spirit guarded against in the fullest possible way, so that the angel could say to Mary, That Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. While in our English version the words partakers of and took part of might seem to imply in each instance fullest participation, the original does not necessarily imply this. The following note from the pen of F. W. Grant, than whom I know no more spiritual expositor, is very helpful. It must be noted here, as it often has been, that while the children are said to be partakers of flesh and blood-this partaking being a real having in common, a participation of the most thorough kind-in His own taking part another word is used which implies limitation. It does not indeed show the character of the limitation; but the difference between the words makes us necessarily ask what, in fact, that limitation was; and the answer comes to us immediately, that while His was true humanity in every particular necessary to constitute it that, yet humanity as men have it, the humanity of fallen men, was not His. Here there must be strict limitation. We must add, as the apostle does afterwards with regard to His temptation, sin apart. Sin, with the consequences of sin, He could not take. Death could have no power over Him, except as He might submit Himself voluntarily to it, and this He did; but it was obedience to His Fathers will, and no necessity of His condition, as it is of ours (Numerical Bible, Notes on Hebrews, page 23).
And if it be remembered that sin is not inherent in human nature as such, but that it is a foreign thing brought in through the fall, it can be readily understood how it could be said that our blessed Lord took part of the same without involving full participation in all that had come in through mans failure. He must be the Unblemished One if He would make satisfaction for sins. It is through failure to realize this that many very wrong systems have been built up teaching the sinfulness of Christs humanity, something which one would expect would be repugnant to every truly converted person.
Having thus become Man, though sinless, our Lord became mans Champion and went forth as our David to destroy or annul the great Goliath who had terrorized the world ever since the fall, him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil. The cross was for Christ a Valley of Elah where He met our cruel foe and put an end to his authority over the souls of all who believe the gospel, thus delivering us even now, who in times past through fear of death were held in bitter bondage all our lives. Satan is a conquered foe and no believer need now fear him, but it is incumbent on us to watch and pray lest he mislead us and hinder our communion with God, though he well knows he can never destroy our life.
The sixteenth verse seems to be unfortunately rendered in our Authorized Version, through inserting the italicized words which imply that it is a question of nature that is under consideration. A better translation reads as follows: For truly He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He took hold. That is, Christ did not come to be the Saviour of fallen angels. They are shut up unto eternal darkness, but in infinite grace He passed angels by and laid hold on the seed of Abraham, that is, on all who believe in Him. In order to do this, it was necessary that He should be made like unto His brethren, as we have already seen, that thus having passed sinlessly through all human experiences, He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make-not reconciliation, as in the Authorized Version text, but-expiation or atonement for the sins of the people. In this we see the fulfilment of the type of the great Day of Atonement when the high priest first offered the sacrifice at the altar and then presented the blood in the Holiest. So our Lord, at the close of His pilgrim path, on our behalf offered up Himself upon the cross to make expiation, atonement, or propitiation, for our sins. The original word is that used in the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament to translate the Hebrew word for atonement. Reconciliation is the result of this, but it is we who are reconciled to God, not He who has to be reconciled to us.
And now our Great High Priest lives on high ever ready to succor them that are tempted. Having Himself suffered being tempted, His heart goes out in compassion to us in our great need. Note the contrast between this passage and 1Pe 4:1. Here we read that Christ suffered being tempted. In the other passage we are told that He that suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. This brings out most vividly the difference between Christs perfect humanity and our sinful natures. To us, sin is attractive and alluring. We suffer in the flesh when we resist it. With Him it was the very opposite. Temptation caused Him the keenest suffering. It was the presentation of that to His holy soul which He abhorred, and even to have to do with it, in the sense of temptation, caused Him pain and anguish.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
II. CHRIST, SON OF MAN, His GLORY AND His SALVATION
CHAPTER 2:5-18
1. The Man crowned with glory and honor (Heb 2:5-9)
2. His humiliation, suffering and the results (Heb 2:10-18)
Heb 2:5-9
Angels are once more mentioned and the fact is stated first of all that angels are not called of God to reign: Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection, the world to come whereof we speak. The world to come is not heaven or the eternal state. The literal translation is the habitable world to come; it is the existing earth, inhabited by human beings in the dispensation which will follow the present age. The world in the dispensation to come, called in Ephesians the dispensation of the fullness of time is not put in subjection to angels. A quotation from the Eighth Psalm follows, from which we learn that man is to have dominion and to rule over this world to come. Dominion over the earth was given to Adam (Gen 1:28), but sin coming in, and death also, this dominion and rule was lost; the glory and honor which rested upon Adam was changed into shame and dishonor. Through mans fall Satan became the usurper, the prince of this world. Adam was the figure of Him that was to come, the Second Man in whom and through whom the lost dominion is restored.
It is interesting to study the order of the psalms with which the book of psalms begins, divinely arranged by an unknown instrument. The righteous Man in Psa 1:1-6 is the Lord Jesus; the Second Psalm shows Him as the Messiah-King. Then Psa 3:1-8; Psa 4:1-8; Psa 5:1-12; Psa 6:1-10; Psa 7:1-17 show the suffering, sorrows and soul-exercise of the godly during the time when He does not yet reign, especially the suffering of the Jewish remnant during the tribulation and then comes Psa 8:1-9, Christ, the Second Man set over all things. The Annotated Bible on the Psalms follows this more fully.
The Eighth Psalm reveals this Second Man, the Lord from heaven, the Creator in creatures form. He was made a little lower than the angels. The Son of God took the position of man to make peace in the blood of His cross to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven (Col 1:20). All things are therefore put in subjection under His feet and nothing is left that is not put in subjection under Him. He will have dominion over all and His name will be excellent in all the earth. Satan knows that the dominion of the earth will not be left forever in his horrible grasp. He offered the kingdoms of the world and their glory to the Son of Man, attempting to keep Him from going to the cross, in which, through the death of Christ, the devil, who has the power of death, is brought to nought.
The work is done. Christ is the Second Man; He will have dominion over the earth in the world to come, the dispensation to come. He will reign and rule and His fellows, the partakers of His salvation, will reign with Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him. The time is not in this present age in which Satan is god and ruler. Only when the First-begotten is brought back from the glory, in His second coming, will all things be put under Him. Faith knows this from the unfailing promises of God. But faith also has another vision; while Satan is not yet dethroned and Christ enthroned, We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, who was made a little lower than the angels on account of the suffering of death; so that by the grace of God He should taste death for all things. Glorious vision! He suffered death. He perfectly glorified God on the earth where God had been dishonored. He came down and took the lowest place and now He is exalted to the highest. The Man who suffered and died fills the throne and is crowned with glory and honor. And as surely as He is there now, so will He in Gods own time occupy His own throne with all things put under his feet. He tasted death for that–for all things–for a ruined creation which He has redeemed and will restore.
Heb 2:10-18
This salvation work is now more fully mentioned in the second part of this chapter. He is spoken of as the captain (author) of the salvation of the many sons He is bringing to glory. And as the originator and leader of their salvation He had to suffer and die. Not His person was to be perfected, for He is perfect; but He had to be perfected through suffering as a Saviour. For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Here Gods eternal purpose is wonderfully revealed. He purposed before the foundation, knowing the coming ruin of man, to bring many sons unto glory. This is divine love. But Gods holiness had to be vindicated, and therefore the Son of God became man to suffer as the captain of their (the many sons) salvation.
As disobedience had led man from life to death, so, by obedience unto death the sinless Lamb of God had to win in righteousness the path of endless life for those who trust in Him as the originator and captain of their salvation. And those who accept Him are the many sons, whom God is bringing through Him, to glory everlasting. And both He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. It is a wicked perversion of the truth when it is taught, that He, and all the human race are of one. This is the common error taught so much in the so-called theory of The Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man. The statement shows the wonderful relationship which divine grace has established between the captain of salvation and those who are saved by Him. He, Christ, is the sanctifier, setting those apart unto God, who accept Him as Saviour. Such are born of God and become children of God, destined to be brought by Him as sons to glory. In this sense He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified by Him are of One, that is, of God. Higher still is the truth revealed in the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, that believers are not only of one but are one with Him.
Again quotations from the Scriptures follow. The first is from the Twenty-second Psalm. For this cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying I will declare Thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee (Psa 22:22). This Psalm shows first Christ on the cross as sin-bearer. In Psa 22:20-21 is the prayer of the Suffering One. And He was heard. Gods answer was His resurrection from the dead. That resurrection and His exaltation are revealed in the second portion of this Psalm (Psa 22:22-31). The beginning of this section is quoted here. And when He was risen from the dead He gave this blessed new message at once. But go unto My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God (Joh 20:17).
Here we learn the blessed identification of Him that sanctifieth and with them that are sanctified, and that on the ground of resurrection. And therefore He is not ashamed to call us brethren, which, however, does not authorize believers to call Him brother as it is done so often. (Never before His death and resurrection did He address His disciples as brethren. Only once did He hint before His death at this relationship to come, in Mat 12:48-50.) And by His Spirit He is in the midst of those who are gathered unto His name, the Church, and sings praise unto God, as they praise God in His blessed and worthy name. The Twenty-second Psalm also speaks of the great congregation, Israel, gathered unto Him and of the ends of the earth and the nations who shall remember and shall worship before Him. It is His coming glory when all things are put under Him in the age to come.
The next quotation is from Psa 16:1-11. (It may also be brought in connection with Is. 8:17. The Septuagint has it I will trust in Him 2Sa 22:3.) I will put my trust in Him. It is the prophetic expression of His personal faith on earth. As man He trusted in the Lord and waited for Him (Isa 8:17). The Seed of David, and the object of the promises, is thus represented as awaiting, in perfect confidence, the righteous award which in due time should be made to Him who alone is worthy, by the God whom He had glorified in perfect obedience; although for an appointed season His gracious labor might seem to have been spent for nought and in vain, while man and Satan appeared only to prevail (Isa 49:1-26).
The last quotation is from Isa 8:18. The children, which the Lord had given to Isaiah, were for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord. The two sons of Isaiah had received their names of significant meaning from heaven. Believers are children, belong to Him and are signs and witnesses both to unbelieving Israel and the world. In a special sense this passage, no doubt, applies to the believing remnant of Israel, which owned Him, while the nation rejected Him. And some day, the day of His glory, He will declare triumphantly Behold I and the children which God gave unto Me. Then He will be glorified and admired in all that believed (2Th 1:10) and the redeemed will be for signs and wonders in a still more blessed way.
Then follows a restatement of the fact of His incarnation and its special bearing on the calling of the children, God has given Him, the many sons He brings to glory. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also in like manner took part of the same (His incarnation) that through death He might bring to nought him who hath the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver as many as through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. It was for the childrens sake, all who accept Him and whom God brings through Him to glory, that He took on flesh and blood and by doing so He arrayed Himself for death. He took on flesh and blood apart from sin. Satans work is perfected in death. That the Lord Jesus might enjoy the children as the gift of God, He must first take away the yoke of the oppressor. But because the right of Satan to destroy was founded on the victory of sin, which made man the lawful prey of death, He, who loved the children though as yet they knew Him not, took also flesh; that in their stead He might undergo that death which should forever spoil the devil of his claim (A. Pridham). The limit of this work of the Lord Jesus to the children as its object, should be carefully observed.
Jewish saints in the Old Testament, believing the promise and expecting the Messiah, were in bondage and in fear of death. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but the death of Christ once for all to sin has received the sting and brought to nought him who has the power of death. A believer is delivered from the fear of death, for he no longer dies the sinners death, but falls asleep in Jesus and that with the promise to awake in due time in His likeness. For verily it is not angels upon whom He taketh hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham. And who were they whom He took hold on? Not angels, but the seed of Abraham. Those are the children for which He came, took on flesh and blood and wrought His work on the cross. The expression seed of Abraham is as a generic term, descriptive of the whole family of faith. Believers of Jews and Gentiles are comprehended in this term. They that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
His priesthood is next introduced for the first time in this Epistle. He was made like unto His brethren in all things that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted, and thus in suffering and temptation (apart from sin) in His humanity, He was fitted to be the priest to sympathize with His own in all their trials and conflicts.
He suffered–never yielded. We do not suffer when we yield to temptation: the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is tempted. Jesus suffered, being tempted, and He is able to succour them that are tempted. It is important to observe that the flesh, when acted upon by its desires, does not suffer. Being tempted, it, alas! enjoys. But when, according to the light of the Holy Spirit and the fidelity of obedience, the Spirit resists the attacks of the enemy, whether subtle or persecuting, then one suffers. This the Lord did, and this we have to do. That which needs succour is the new man, the faithful heart, and not the flesh. I need succour against the flesh, and in order to mortify all the members of the old man Synopsis of the Bible.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
What Is Man?
Angels were highly venerated by the ancient Jews, almost to the point of worship, just as they are by many today. Because so many would put the angels of God in the place of God, making them the objects of adoration and worship (Many even pray to the angels!), superstitions abound concerning those heavenly creatures. Therefore, the Holy Spirit gave us these first two chapters of the Book of Hebrews to show us Christs greatness and superiority over the angels. He is the Creator. They are, like us, his creatures.
The angels are, as we read in Heb 2:14 of chapter one, — Ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation. It never was Gods intention or purpose to put his people in subjection to, under the rule of, angels or to make them in any way inferior to the angels, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Heb 2:5).
The Question
Then, in Heb 2:6-9, the inspired writer quotes from Psalms 8, raising the question, What is man? What is man That God should be so gracious to him? What is man That the angels of God should serve him? What is man That the world to come should be put in subjection to him?
Whenever we read about, hear about, or think about Gods goodness, mercy, love, and grace toward fallen, sinful man, we ought to be utterly astonished. We ought to ask, What is man? (Job 7:17-18; Psa 144:3-4).
The Backdrop
Be sure you do not miss the backdrop against which this question is asked. Both the Psalmist (Psa 8:1-3) and the writer of the Book of Hebrews (Heb 1:1-3) raised this question (What is man?) against the backdrop of the glorious greatness of God. We cannot form a right and proper view of anything in Gods creation if we fail to see the greatness and glory of God.
The root of all sin, the cause of all unbelief, and the source of all heresy in the world can be found in this one thing — All men by nature have low views of God. Satan could not persuade Eve to sin until he convinced her that God was not as great as she thought he was. We would never doubt his Word if we did not question his greatness. Men would never pervert the gospel, if they did not have very low views of God. Therefore, the first message of every prophet, apostle, and preacher sent of God is, Behold your God! (Isa 40:10). Only when we see the greatness of God will we worship him, love him, trust him, and honor him as God.
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
world
“oikoumene” = inhabited earth. (See Scofield “Luk 2:1”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the world: Heb 6:5, 2Pe 3:13, Rev 11:15
Reciprocal: Gal 1:4 – from Gal 3:19 – by Eph 1:21 – in that Heb 2:8 – hast Heb 9:10 – until
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Heb 2:5. Paul is still considering the superiority of Christ over the angels, and of His law over that which was “spoken by angels.” Those beings were inferior even to all men that they were not to have dominion over the earth at the time of creation, while it was given to man. (See Gen 1:26-28.) The world means the inhabited part of the universe, and to come is said because when the dominion was given to man, the population of the earth was still in the future.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Heb 2:5. For. This verse introduces a new proof of the superiority of the Gospel; but it is also connected with what precedes. The most natural explanation is to connect the for with Heb 1:14. Angels are not sons: they are ministering spirits appointed only to serve. Not unto angels is the government of men under the Gospel committed. The new dispensation economy, the kingdom of God, the order of things under the Messiah, is committed to man, as was the world of old (Psalms 8); to the model man, however, the ideal man, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. The name, the world to come (see note on Heb 1:2), was quite familiar to the Jews, who called their own economy this world, and was used after the Jewish economy had practically ceased (comp. Mat 12:32), as Christ Himself is called, even after He had come, the Coming One (Rom 5:14). This world of the future was already introduced; but the description was still appropriate, and is used again in this Epistle (Heb 9:10-11, Heb 10:1), partly because it was the name that described the hope of the Jews, and partly because the temple was still standing. Some regard the name as applying to the new heaven and the new earth, some to the heavenly state itself. It really includes them both, only it is wider, and applies to the whole order of things and to the government of men (see Gr.) under the Messiah. (See chap, Heb 6:5.)
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Section 1. (Heb 2:5-9.)
As already crowned with glory, and to be over the world to come.
The first section, then, shows us Christ as Man destined to be set over the world to come, though, as yet, not seen with all things put under Him as such, but crowned with glory and honor. The world is here the “habitable earth to come,” to which the psalmist is looking on now. Angels are not set over that. The Son of Man is, and He is the representative Man for God, -not the first, but the Second Man. The first man is fallen, and the race with him. The Second Man it is in whom the restored earth stands, and whose work reaches even to the reconciliation of the things in heaven.
Here we have again the testimony of the Old Testament. The habitable earth was designed for man, as is plain, at the beginning, and, spite of his fall, the purpose of God in this cannot be defeated. The angels are not to displace him here. In the quotation of the eighth psalm man is seen indeed, not merely made naturally a little lower than the angels, but such an one as makes it a matter of God’s condescending grace, if He remembers him at all. The very glory of God in the heavens over his head makes the psalmist ask with astonishment, how God can visit this fallen son of man. The answer is plainly that it is not the fallen man with whom God is occupied, but Another altogether. And when Christ is seen, then the glory of the visible heavens is all eclipsed in comparison. What does it all amount to when compared with the glory of Him who is now before the eye of God, made indeed Himself a little lower than the angels, but to be crowned with glory and honor, and with all things put in subjection under His feet!
The apostle emphasizes this in the most absolute way: “For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not in subjection under Him.” It is quite true, he says, we do not see that yet. That is a mystery revealed to faith: it is not yet a manifestation. Nevertheless, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels on account of the suffering of death,” which He had to endure, “crowned with glory and honor. Here is One who has plainly come to seek the lowest place, and not the highest, but who, just in that very way, is exalted to the highest. Here is a true Man, and even a Son of Man; and One who has come under the penalty of sin in order that He might remove it; by the grace of God tasting death, realizing all the bitterness of it, “for every one” or “every thing,” as we may otherwise read it; in either case, for the ransom of all the creation, wherever sin had blighted it. The first man stood for the whole scene with which he was connected, and which fell with him. The Second Man, in the same way, stands in connection with the whole scene, but as Redeemer and Restorer. The habitable earth to come is the sphere of the first man, but in the hands of the Second. It is earth, not heaven (as is plain by the psalm), and can only take in part of the scene in Heb 12:22-24; as, for instance, Zion, but not the New Jerusalem. The eighth psalm may give hints of a wider dominion, but its plain speech does not go beyond the earth; but thus the purpose of God in man’s creation is vindicated abundantly, nay, shown to be inconceivably more wonderful than could appear at the beginning. God is glorified in Him with a glory which fills not the earth only, but also heaven.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Still our apostle prosucutes his former design, which was to persuade the Hebrews, that more heed is to be given to the word of Christ, the doctrine of the gospel, than to the word or law delivered by angels, because God had given a greater authority to Christ than ever he did to the angels, as appears by putting the world to came in subjecton to Christ, and not to angels; yea, inasmuch as angels themselves are to be in subjection unto Christ, as a part of his kingdom, Unto the angels hath he not put into subjection the world to come? That is, the world of believers gathered out of all nations by the preaching of the gospel, is put under Christ’s immediate power, and subject not to angels, but to Christ himself.
Learn hence, That it is the great privilege of the gospel-church, that it depends upon Christ as its immediate and only Head, and is not put in subjection to any other, either angels or men. The gospel-church was not put in subjection to angels in its first erection or institution, nor was it put into subjection unto angels, as to the rule and government of it when erected; but angels and saints are equally subjected unto Christ, who is both an head of vital influence, as also an head of authority, rule, and government to the whole church, and every member thereof.
Observe next, The proof which the apostle brings for this out of the Psalms, Psalms 8 in which David breaks forth into admiration and wonder, at that glory and honour which God the Father put upon man at first in the work of creation, and next in the work of redemption: When the Son of God took the nature of man upon him, well might it then be said, Lord! What is man, that thou wert thus mindful of him, and the sons of men, that thy dear and only son did thus visit them:
Learn hence, 1. That such was the inconceivable love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, towards the sons of men, that he was free and willing to condescend unto any condition for their benefit and salvation: He that was the Creator of angels, was willing, for our sakes, to be made lower than the angels, a little lower, that is, for a little time lower than the angels, namely, during the time of his humiliation.
Learn, 2. That this wonderful condescension of Christ to take the nature of man, his respect and care, his love and eternal admiration. Oh! What is man that thou art mindful of him, and crownest him with dignity and glory.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Made a Little Lower than the Angels
Continuing to quote from Psa 8:5-7 , the writer shows man’s rank in the universe. All things were put under man’s authority. Though he may now be frustrated in this, he will some day see it come to pass. In fact, Christians see the beginning of that fulfillment in Jesus. He was crowned with “glory and honor” after He tasted death. When Jesus tasted death, He did it for every man. 1Co 15:1-58 shows Jesus died for our sins. It is through that death that we will live again. The new life we have in Him will be unlike this existence. We will have an incorruptible body and a specially prepared place to live. Christ will not keep death from us the first time (9:27). However, He will keep us from the second death which is described in Rev 20:14 . Jesus took the rank of man for a time so we could avoid that death ( Heb 2:7-9 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Heb 2:5. For, &c. This verse contains a proof of the third: the greater the salvation is, and the more glorious the Lord whom we despise, the greater will be our punishment. Unto the angels hath he (God) not put in subjection the world to come That is, as most commentators have understood the clause, the dispensation of the Messiah; which, being to succeed the Mosaic, was usually styled by the Jews, The world to come; although it is still, in a great measure, to come: whereof we speak Of which I am now speaking. In this last great dispensation, the Son alone presides. Macknight, however, objects to this interpretation of the words, observing, The gospel dispensation is called , the age to come, (Heb 6:5,) but never , the habitable world to come. That phrase, if I mistake not, signifies the heavenly country promised to Abraham, and to his spiritual seed. Wherefore, as , the world, (Luk 2:1, and elsewhere,) by a usual figure of speech, signifies the inhabitants of the world, the phrase , may very well signify the inhabitants of the world to come, called, (Heb 1:14,) them who shall inherit salvation. If so, the apostles meaning will be, that God hath not put the heirs of salvation, who are to inhabit the world to come, the heavenly Canaan, in subjection to angels, to be by them conducted into that world, as the Israelites were conducted into the earthly Canaan, by an angel, Exo 23:20. They are only ministering spirits, sent forth by the Son to minister for the heirs of salvation, but not to conduct them. The heirs who are to inhabit the world to come, God hath put in subjection to the Son alone. Hence he is called the Captain of their salvation, Heb 2:10. And having introduced them into the heavenly country, he will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, as we are told 1Co 15:24.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5. For He did not subordinate the world to come, concerning which we speak to angels. The Greek word translated world in this verse is a passive participle, and simply means the inhabited (earth). It means this world in the glorious restoration of its Mediatorial King. In the grand restitution which will properly be inaugurated when our Lord rides down on His millennial throne to reign in righteousness a thousand years, then it will be consummated by the fiery sanctification of the world, its final renovation and celestialization (Rev 21:1). This redeemed and glorified world is not committed to angels, but the glorified Christ, with His transfigured saints, will rule over it forever.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Heb 2:5-18. Resuming his argument, the writer deals with the objection that Christ cannot be ranked above the angels in view of His earthly humiliation. This objection is answered by conclusions drawn from Psa 8:4-6*. Christ was indeed made lower than the angels, but for the purpose that He should rise to the sovereign place. Only by His suffering and death could He be fitted for His supreme work as High Priest and Saviour. The angels had no authority over that higher world of which the writer is to speak in this epistle. Scripture points rather to a son of man who will control all things; and by all things is meant the future heavenly world as well as the present (Heb 2:5 f.). But in this very assertion of the dignity of Christ (for He is the man whom the Ps. foretells) reference is made to a temporary humiliation. The words for a little while lower than the angels (mg.) are explained when we turn to the gospel history. For a little time Jesus was subjected to our human lot, but His suffering of death was only the prelude to His exaltation. It was evidence of the grace of God, who by this means made salvation possible for all men.
Heb 2:9. This verse is difficult, owing to the condensation within a single sentence of several ideas: (a) Christs earthly life and sufferings were necessary to His exaltation; (b) this exaltation was due to His adding the attribute of Saviour to His other attributes; (c) His death, therefore, was at once a crowning honour bestowed on Himself and a proof of Gods goodness to all men.
That Jesus had to suffer and die was fully in keeping with the wisdom of God; for if He was to lead the way to salvation for the suffering race of mankind, He needed Himself to suffer, and thus to be fitted perfectly for His task (Heb 2:10). A parenthesis follows (Heb 2:11-13), in which it is shown by Scripture (Psa 22:22, Isa 8:17 f.) that in spite of their low estate men are the brethren of Christ, sons of the same Father. But Gods human children are subject to limitations of flesh and blood, and in order to save them Christ had to make Himself one with them (Heb 2:14). He died their death that He might overcome the devil, who has power to inflict death on men as the penalty of their sins; and thus He saved men not from death only, but from that overhanging dread of it which took all joy and freedom out of their lives (Heb 2:15). If Jesus had set Himself to be Redeemer of angels (take hold of, i.e. in order to rescue), it would not have been necessary for Him so to humiliate Himself. But since His work was on behalf of His earthly brethren, the way He chose was the only possible one, and we are not to marvel at it. He had to submit Himself to the mortal lot of men that so He might represent them before God with a full sense of their needs and infirmities. Tried Himself by a life of suffering, He is able to succour those who are tried likewise (Heb 2:16 ff.).
These verses prepare the way for the subject which is to occupy the central portion of the epistle. It is by acting as our High Priest that Christ achieves our salvation; and His earthly life was meant to fit Him for this His characteristic work.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 5
The world to come; the kingdom of Christ.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:5 {3} For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the {f} world to come, whereof we speak.
(3) If it was an atrocious matter to condemn the angels who are but servants, it is much more atrocious to condemn that most mighty King of the restored world.
(f) The world to come, of which Christ is Father, Isa 9:6 or the Church, which as a new world, was to be gathered together by the gospel.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
D. The Humiliation and Glory of God’s SON 2:5-9
Heb 2:5-18 present eight reasons for the incarnation of the Son: to fulfill God’s purpose for man (Heb 2:5-9 a), to taste death for all (Heb 2:9 b), and to bring many sons to glory (Heb 2:10-13). He also came to destroy the devil (Heb 2:14), to deliver those in bondage (Heb 2:15), to become a priest for men (Heb 2:16-17 a), to make propitiation for sins (Heb 2:17 b), and to provide help for those tested (Heb 2:18). [Note: Ibid., pp. 58-68.]
Some of the original Jewish readers of Hebrews felt inclined to abandon the Christian faith because of Jesus’ humanity. The writer stressed His deity in chapter one because some Jews failed to appreciate that. In this chapter he showed why Jesus was not inferior because He was a man. Jesus’ humanity enabled Him to regain man’s lost dominion (Heb 2:5-9) and to bring many sons to glory (Heb 2:10-13). It also equipped Him to disarm Satan and deliver us from death (Heb 2:14-16) and to be a sympathetic high priest to His people (Heb 2:17-18). [Note: Wiersbe, 2:283-84.]
The writer returned to his main argument (ch. 1). He did so to develop the destiny of Jesus Christ more fully so his readers would strengthen their commitment to continue following Him.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
"The world to come" refers to the inhabited earth under Jesus Christ’s reign (during the Millennium and from then on; cf. Heb 1:8-9; Heb 1:11-13). Some branches of Judaism believed Michael and his angels would rule over it. [Note: Zane C. Hodges, "Hebrews," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, p. 783.] The angels administer the present world (Deu 32:8; Dan 10:20-21; Dan 12:1), but the Son will administer the world to come.
"This will occur at His second advent when He returns to this earth to sit as David’s Son on David’s throne and rule over David’s kingdom in fulfillment of God’s covenants and promises." [Note: Pentecost, p. 57.]
In this respect, too, Jesus is superior to the angels. The phrase "concerning which we are speaking" indicates that the writer was resuming his exposition and continuing his thought from Heb 1:5-14.