Jesus was being seen

JESUS WAS BEING SEEN
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Hebrews 2:9 9
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than
the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and
honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God
he might taste death for everyone.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The SeenPresentAs A Ground Of Confidence In The UnseenFuture
Hebrews 2:8, 9
D. Young The confidence of one who believes in Messianic prophecyis that all
things are as goodas subjectedto the Christ because Godhas declaredthis as
his design. What we see is greatly short of subjection, and the subjectedpart
we fail to see;we cannot rest our eyes upon it properly, because their attention
is distracted by the sight of so much defiance, rebellion, and attempt at self-
government in the far greaterpart of what ought to be subject to Christ. All
the more need to find in what we may see the assuranceand promise of the
unseen. We do see - for that is what the words amount to - a humanized, a
dying, and a risen Christ. "Crownedwith glory and honor" is but a
periphrasis for the resurrection, an indication of one of the things God did in
raising his Son Jesus.
I. WHAT WE SEE SHOWS US THE POWER WHICH CAN PRODUCE
THE DESIRED UNSEEN.God, in saying that all things shall be subjected to
Christ, asserts authority. But by the course ofhis Son Jesus onearth he also
manifested power. He took as it were a small sectionof time and space, and
there gave us gracious illustration of what he is ever doing, some of it in the
realm of the seen, but much more in that of the unseen. What power there is
in the Incarnation! For obvious reasons the Incarnation is mostly connected
with thoughts of God's condescension, and the lowly-heartedness ofJesus

himself. But these considerations must not blind us to the Incarnation as an
illustration of God's power. There is a mysterious powerin making Jesus
lowerthan the angels, and if it be true that there is a causalconnection
betweensin and death as a painful experience, then some peculiar power must
be involved in bringing the sinless Jesus in contactwith the pain of death.
Then, of course, there is the instance of power, most impressive and most
cheering to us, in the raising of Jesus from the dead. If only we can really
believe that God has power overthe grave, we shall believe in his final
conquestof all that canhurt his people.
II. WHAT WE SEE SHOWS US THE PURPOSE EVER WORKING
TOWARDS THE DESIRED UNSEEN.The grace ofGod is manifest as well
as the powerof God. Jesus not only died; he tasted of death for every one - for
every one who could benefit by the tasting of it. He tastedof it that by his
resurrectionhe might show it was not the remediless poisonmen reckonedit
to be. In his love he tasted death, as much as to sayto men, "Fearnot." We
have the Divine purposes in words, but those words are only the more perfect
expressions ofwhat we might infer from the works. It is true that "through
the ages one increasing purpose runs" - a purpose much higher than that any
individual man might form, or the combination of any men.
III. WHAT WE SEE SHOWS US PATIENCE WAITING FOP, THE
DESIRED UNSEEN. Greatis the patience of God - a contrastto our
impatience, our haste, our discontent, if we cannotget immediate results. The
fullness of time has to be waited for before the Christ can enter the world; the
fullness of manhood has to be waitedfor till he canbegin to teach. Jesus
himself must have his own time of sufficient seed-sowing before he cango to
Jerusalemfor the final scene, belay, procrastination, postponement, is what
God cannot tolerate where there ought to be decision, but for greatsteps to be
takenin his own mighty plans he can wait the proper time. If we do not yet see
all things subjectedto Jesus, if indeed the struggle seems oftenquite the other
way, then there is all the more need for us to look at the careerofJesus from
Bethlehem to Calvary as an illustration of how God canwait. In making up
the cup which Jesus drank, many ingredients had to be waitedfor. - Y.

Biblical Illustrator
But we see Jesus.
Hebrews 2:9
The coming sovereigntyof man
J. Clifford, D. D.I. "WE SEE NOT YET ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTIONTO
MAN." "Notyet"; but we are to see it. It has to come, this swayof man over
"things," over all things — over the material forces ofthe world, the powers
that largelyaffect, if they do not actually make, life and progress. The keyof
the energies ofthe universe hangs at his girdle, and he will one day "be so
learned in love" as to know how to use it to open all the doors of all the
mansions of nature, and make their treasures supplements to, and
continuations of, the spiritual creation. It has to come, this rule of the Spirit
over sense and sin and Satan, over all that touches the invisible essencethat
constitutes the true man, and therefore over Satan, who works through
"things" to deceive the nations and destroy souls. This supremacy is the final
goalof humanity.
II. "NOT UNTO ANGELS HAS GOD SUBJECTED THE COMING
WORLD." Angels filled and crowdedHebrew thought for a long time, as
God's "mighty ones," the swift-wingedmessengers who delightedto do His
will; agents of deliverance, as for the imprisoned Peter, and of punishment, as
for Sennacherib. But not to these "men in lighter habit clad" had God
subjectedthe coming world of manhood, the advancing goodnessand
perfecting characterand service of the sons of God. Not to them, but to men
like ourselves, who have to do with sheepand oxen and the beasts ofthe field,
with cottonand calicoes, with science andart; whose life is as "fragile as the
dewdrop on its perilous way from a tree's summit." and yet so strong that it
destroys itself by sin; men "made a little lowerthan God, and crownedwith
the glory" of a present participation in His nature, and therefore by and by to
be invested with the "honour" of sharing His rule.
III. BUT IF TO MAN, TO WHAT IS THIS SCEPTREOF DOMINION
FINALLY GRANTED?To all and sundry, and to them all alike, simply as
men, or to particular races orone race of men? To whom is the ultimate
leadership of the world to be given? God is no respecterof persons or of
nations. Colour of skin is nothing to Him. Geographydoes not determine His
choices. The conquering race is the godly race, of any colour, or country, or
time. It is the "new man, which is being renewedunto knowledge afterthe

image of Him that createdhim; where there cannotbe" — it is ruled out for
evermore" where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcisionand
uncircumcision, barbarian," African, Hindoo, Chinaman, Briton; " but
Christ is all and in all." It is the manhood of "kind hearts," not-f "coronets,"
of "simple faith," and not of "Normanblood."
IV. Though eighteencenturies have elapsedsince that forecastofthe destiny
of man was quoted, endorsed, and explained by the writer to the Hebrews,
amid the wreck and overthrow of Judaism, WE HAVE, ALAS! TO ADOPT
THE WRITER'S LAMENT, AND SAY, AS WE LOOK ON MAN AND HIS
WORLD TO-DAY, "NOT YET WE SEE ALL THINGS SUBJECTEDUNTO
HIM'." Indeed, his mastery "of things," though advancedand advancing, is
woefully incomplete. He is only slowly learning that he is a spirit, and is for
large breadths of his time and in wide areas ofhis life the slave of " things."
The animal is in command. Prometheus is still bound. "The mystery of waste"
and suffering and wrong confronts us day and night with its terrible menace,
and the self-multiplying and intensifying power of sin drives us to carry our
despair into our facts, until there is neither faith nor hope left in us, and, like
the Hebrews, "we fall awayfrom the living God," and find it impossible "to
hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end."
V. But surely that is not all we see!There is more, much more. On this earth
and amongstmen — "WE SEE JESUS";and though, in seeing Him, our first
glimpse may only confirm the impression that man has not yet fully entered
on his inheritance; yet the deeper look assures us that he is on his way to it,
has alreadybeen anointed with the oil of joy above his predecessors and
contemporaries, and, though suffering, is really ascending by suffering to the
throne from which He shall rule for evermore. That sight explains the ages'
long delay; the dissolution and disappearance ofthe ancient and illustrious
Jewishreligion, and is the indefeasible pledge and guarantee that the
sovereigntyof man shall yet be realised, and all things be put under His feet.
Seeing Jesus, we see these fourpaths to the sovereigntyof the Christian race,
and of the Christian religion through that race;the path of history, of Divine
revelation, of saintly character, and of self-suppressing enthusiasmfor the
welfare of the world.
1. The past rules. It is alive; for many people more alive than the present. In
Jesus that past is interpreted; its religious yearning and hope, effort and
failure, explained; its programme in law and prophecy filled out; its long and
painful discipline vindicated. Now, the case being so, I maintain that the
experience the world has had of Christianity forms a piece of logic of
irresistible cogency;an argument compact, four-square, fixed deep and for

ever in the solid fastnesses offact, in favour of the success ofour present
endeavour to save the world by the gospelofChrist; that indeed, as Christ in
the conscience is the stronghold of missions, so Christ in the experience of men
of like passions and hopes, faiths and fears with ourselves, allthrough the
ages, is an unimpeachable voucher for the triumph of the missionary
enterprise; a witness that cannot be denied that the movement is a living,
saving, and conquering one, and destined to end in nothing short of the
universal establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth.
2. Ideas rule. Thinkers make and mould the ages. Religious revolutions are
effectedby ideas. In Jesus we see the simplest and highest thought on the
highest and most absorbingly vital themes: Godand salvation, sin and
forgiveness, duty and holiness. Greatis the truth as it is in Jesus, and it shall
prevail through and over Moses and Isaiah, over Buddha and Mahomet, and
make all men free and good. We know the gospelto be the light and
conquering messageforIndia and the world. Judging man according to the
spiritual necessitiesofhis nature, we are sure this is the only message he can
abidingly accept. Treating him, not simply as a keenintellectual thinker,
eagerto frame a definition of the Divine, and reduce his notions of the
Godheadto the cramping boundaries of a four-page catechism— not as a
cleverand ingenious artist flinging the pictures of his fancy on the canvas, and
creating things of perennial beauty and joy — not as a cleverly-constructed
money-making machine, but as a man with a feveredrestlessness bornof sin,
and an irrepressible aspiration for righteousnessand goodness bornof the
God that is in him; taking him thus, I declare that no messagecansoothe him
but Christ's, no medicine heal but the greatPhysician's, no goodsatisfy but
that which make him a partakerof the Divine nature, and enables him to
escape the corruption that is in the world by lust.
3. This is a moral world; and no rule lasts that is not based on holy character.
It is not enough to have the right message;we need also the right method, the
method that has conquered from the beginning. Jesus Christ wrote no books.
He made men, filled them with His Spirit. and trained them in His service,
and trusted the founding of His kingdom to them. All the greatepochs of
revived life and extended power in the history of the Church have been
introduced by men of signal goodness, ofmassive power, of radiant holiness,
of unusual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When Dr. Judson went amongstthe
poor and benighted Karens, and passedthrough their villages and jungles, he
was calledby the natives "Jesus Christ's man"! That is it. Nothing canresist
that power. A Woolwichsteam-hammer is not better adapted for making

iron-plated ships than Christ in men as a living experience, and at work in the
rescue of the perishing, is fitted for the regenerationofthe world.
4. The earliestsovereigntywe know is that of love. No monarchy is so sure as
a mother's, none so inward and lasting. "Love never fails." It is the p-wet that
keeps your Christian man fresh, earnest, eager, real, enthusiastic, and
hopeful; sustains him at high-pressure in spite of defeat; gives him the power
of content, and the victory of joy in his work through, instead of obtaining the
common rewards of labour, he suffer the heaped-up scorns and bitter hates of
men. David Hume is reported to have said, "Fifty years hence, where will
your Christianity be?" Well, where is it? Contrastthe dominion of Jesus at
this hour, and in the days when the greatsceptic spoke. Note ourLord's
conquestsince that taunt was flung at His chariot! Where has He not gone?
Into what province has He not penetrated? What evils has He not attacked?
Assuredly our survey of the past warrants the largesthopefulness and the
strongestfaith. Now, "Fifty years hence," we may ask, "where will
Christianity not be?"
VI. Disraeli said, "THE YOUNG DO THE REAL WORKOF THE
WORLD." Ruskinwrites, "The most beautiful works ofall art were done in
youth." Rome was founded by Romulus before he was twenty. Lord
Shaftesbury began his fight with socialmisery in the freshness ofhis young
manhood. William Lloyd Garrison girt himself with the swordof freedom
whilst the hot blood of youth was coursing through his veins. Moffatand
Livingstone, Comber and Hannington, and an exceeding greatarmy of
missionaries said, like young Isaiahin response to God's summons, "Here am
I, send me." The messengerofthe Highest, John the Baptist, finished his work
as a young man, and the Christ whom he pioneered was six months his junior.
Wherefore, seeing that you are compassedaboutwith so greata cloud of
witnesses,shirk no task, seize everyopportunity of helping the needy, and run
with patience the race of missionaryservice, "looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of the faith." Hear Carey's wish, and help to realise it. "I hope,"
said he, in 1793, "the Societywill go on and increase, andthat the multitudes
of heathen in the world may hear the glorious words of truth. Africa is but a
little way from India, Madagascarbut a little wayfurther; South America,
and all the numerous and large islands in the Indian and China Seas, Ihope
will not be passedover. A large field opens on every side, millions of perishing
heathens are pleading... with every heart that loves God, and with all the
,hutches of the living God." Heed that prophetic message, and give to the
work of saving the world a daily, d finite, and large place in the thought and
prayer and work of your life!

(J. Clifford, D. D.)
Manhoodcrowned in Jesus
A. Maclaren, D. D.One of our celebratedastronomers is said to have taught
himself the rudiments of his starry science whenlying on the hill-side, keeping
his father's sheep. Perhaps the grand psalm to which these words refer had a
similar origin, and may have come from the early days of the shepherd king,
when, like those others of a later day, he abode in the field of Bethlehem,
keeping watchover his flock by night. The magnificence of the Eastern
heaven,, with their "largerconstellations burning," filled his soul with two
opposite thoughts — man's smallness and man's greatness. I suppose that in a
mind apt to pensive reflections, alive to moral truths, and responsive to the
impressions of God's greatuniverse, the unscientific contemplation of any of
the grander forms of nature produces that double effect. Thus David felt
man's littleness. And yet — and yet, bigness is not greatness, andduration is
not life, and the creature that knows God is highest. So the consciousnessof
man's separationfrom, and superiority to, these silent stars, springs up strong
and victorious over the other thought. These greatlights are not rulers, but
servants;we are more than they, because we have spirits which link us with
God. The text, then, brings before us a threefold sight.
I. LOOK AT THE SIGHT AROUND US. "We see not yet all things put under
man." Where are the men of whom any portion of the Psalmist's words is
true? Look at them — are these the men of whom be sings? Visited by God!
crownedwith glory and honour! having dominion over the works ofHis
hands! Is this irony in fact? Let consciousness speak. Look atourselves. If that
plan be God's thought of man, the plan that He hangs up for us His workmen
to build by, what a wretchedthing my copy of it has turned out to bet Is this a
picture of me? How seldom I am conscious ofthe visits of God; how full I am
of weaknessesand imperfections — the solemn voice within me tells me at
intervals when I listen to its tones. On my brow there gleams no diadem; from
in life, alas!there shines at the best but a fitful splendour of purity, all striped
with solid masses ofblackness.And as for dominion over creatures, how
superficial my rule over them, how realtheir rule over me! I can make
machinery, and bid the lightning do my errands, and carry messages,the
burden of which is mostly money, or power, or sorrow. But all these, and the
whole set of things like thorn, are not ruling over God's creation. That
congestsin using all for God, and for our own growth in wisdom, strength,
and goodness;and be only is master of all things who is servant of God. If so.
what are most of us but servants, not lords, of earth and its goods? And so
againstall the theories of the desperate, school, andagainst all our own

despondent thoughts, we have to oppose the sunny hopes which come from
such words as those of our text. Looking around us, we have indeed to
acknowledge withplaintive emphasis," we see notyet all things put under
Him" — but, looking up, we have to add with triumphant confidence that we
speak of a factwhich has a real bearing on our hopes for men — "we see
Jesus."
II. So, secondly, LOOK UPWARDS TO JESUS. Christ is the powerto
conform us to Himself, as well as the pattern of what we may be. He and none
lower, He and none beside, is the pattern man. Notthe greatconqueror, nor
the greatstatesman, nor the greatthinker, but the greatlove, the perfectly
good— is the man as God meant him to be. But turn now to the
contemplation of Christ in the heavens, "crownedwith glory and honour," as
the true type of man. What does Scripture teachus to see in the exalted Lord?
1. It sets before us, first, a perpetual manhood. Grasp firmly the essential,
perpetual manhood of Jesus Christ, and then to see Him crownedwith glory
and honour gives the triumphant answerto the despairing question that rises
often to the lips of every one who knows the facts of life, "Wherefore hast
Thou make all men in vain? "
2. Again, we see in Jesus, exaltedin the heavens, a corporealmanhood.
Heaven is a place as well as a state;and, however, for the present, the souls
that sleepin Jeans may have to "waitfor the adoption, to wit, the redemption
of the body," and, being unclothed, may be wrapped about with Him, and rest
in His bosom, yet the perfect men who shall one day stand before the Lord,
shall have body, and soul, and spirit — like Him who is a man for ever, and
for everwears a human frame.
3. Further, we see in Jesus transfigured manhood. For Him, as for us, flesh
here means weaknessand dishonour. For us, though not for Him, flesh means
corruption and death. ForHim, as for us, that natural body, which was
adequate to the needs and adapted to the material constitution of this earth,
must be changed into the spiritual body correspondentto the conditions of
that kingdom of God which flesh and blood cannotenter. For us, through
Him, the body of humiliation shall be changedinto likeness ofthe body of His
glory. We see Jesus, and in Him manhood transfigured and perfected.
4. Finally, we see in Jesus sovereignmanhood. He directs the history of the
world, and presides among the nations. He is the prince of all the kings of the
earth. He wields the forces of nature, He directs the march of providence, He
is Lord of the unseen worlds, and holds the keys of death and the grave. "The

government is upon His shoulders," and upon Him hangs "all the glory of His
Father's house."
III. Finally, LOOK FORWARD. Christ is the measure of man's capacities.He
is the true pattern of human nature. Christ Is the prophecy and pledge of
man's dominion. It were a poor consolationto point to Christ and say, "Look
what man has become, and may become," unless we could also say, "A real
and living oneness exists betweenHim and all who cleave to Him, so that their
characters are changed, their natures cleansed, their future altered, their
immortal beauty secured." He is more than pattern, He is power;more than
specimen, He is source;more than example, He is redeemer. He has been
made in the likeness ofsinful flesh, that we may be in the likeness ofHis body
of glory. He has been made "sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness ofGod in Him." The factwe know, the contents of the fact we
wait to prove. "It doth not yet appearwhat we shall be." Enough, that we
shall reign with Him, and that in the kingdom of the heavens dominion means
service, and the leastis the greatest. Nearnessto God, knowledge ofHis heart
and will, likeness to Christ, determine superiority among pure and spiritual
beings.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The vision of Jesus in the Church through all ages
E. PaxtonHood.Did you ever know the powerof a picture, the portrait of
some beloved friend, over the life and the heart? Did you ever hang the
portrait of some cherished darling in the household room — a departed
friend, a mother, a wife, a husband, or a child — some friend especially
related to your sympathies and affections? And have you not noticedand felt
what a characterthat portrait gives to the room? If the memory is especially
prized, how the eye turns to it as it enters the room, and how the eye out of the
portrait seems to follow you, not so much spectrallyas spiritually, while in the
room! That portrait will quiet the heart when it is in its state of fever, heat,
and impulse. Mighty over the heart is the portrait, of the loved departed
friend. But what is that comparedwith the powerof the portrait of Jesus hung
up in the human soul? For is not the soul, too, a mighty chamber — a room
through which the powers and faculties wanderand stray? There are some
men whose souls are exchanges, moneymarkets, or shops;but holy souls hang
up within, the charmed and charming portrait of Jesus, andthe, the spirit of
the portrait turns the chamber into a palace — say rather into a dear
household room. "We see Jesus."

I. THE WHOLE OF THIS EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS IS A TRIBUTE
OF HOMAGE TO THE DIVINISED HUMANITY OF OUR LORD. How
richly it abounds in "strong consolations" to believing souls, founded on the
sympathy of His nature and character!How it meets our human necessities!
For, while it is true that we could not do without the strength of the eternal
Divinity of our Lord, we feel it to be no less true that we could not do without
the tenderness of His humanity; and this is the relation which, throughout the
whole of this Epistle, is put by the apostle with such forcible beauty — "Seeing
then that we have a greatHigh Priest" (Hebrews 4:14-16;again, Hebrews
7:24-26:again, in that magnificent peroration to the whole, Hebrews 11:1-3).
II. AND THIS CONSOLATION PRESSEDOUT OF THE SIGHT OF JESUS
ARISES FROM THE VARIETIES OF HIS POWER, It is very beautiful to
divide His characterin His relation to us as it has been divided by Scripture,
and by the experience of Christians of all ages into Jesus the Prophet, Jesus
the Priest, and Jesus the King. And we receive Him in this order. We see Jesus
the Prophet in all the actions of His life as He went about doing good. "Rabbi,
I know Thou art a teachersent from God." "We see Jesus." He is our Priest"
Harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." At once Priest and Sacrifice.
"On Him is laid the iniquity of us all." I see Him standing vestedin the
beauties of His own holiness — nor have I any desire to own a righteousness
which is nut His; it is not less happy than safe to hide in the foldings of His
robe, and to feelthat in His purity there is power — powerto make "the
scarletcrime whiter then snow." "We see Jesus"as our King. It is our
privilege and pride to see Him moving among and over the affairs of the
world, "walking in the midst of the seven goldencandlesticks," and
proclaiming, "I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for
evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Thus everywhere,
and in all ages, Jesus is power. Oh! what a chronicle is ,flat, the history of
things and deeds wrought in "the name of Jesus." All beings know Jesus.
"Jesus we know, and Paul we know, hut who are ye?" There is powerin the
name of Jesus. There is powerin the vision of Jesus. The value of all Christian
service is there. The value of all worship rendered is in this: "We see Jesus."
III. THE EVER-PRESENTPOSSESSIVENESSOF THE TEXT, "We See
JESUS" — "JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND
FOR EVER." "We See Jesus,"says Paul, perhaps, in prison at Rome. There
is something very striking in the contempt expressedby Festus on the trial of
Paul: "one Jesus" I said he. Ah, how little a personto poor Festus seemed
"one Jesus";but this "one Festus" has quite passedawayfrom the world's
knowledge, andhis name would not be known, his shadow would not be seen

if it were not for this "one Jesus" saving it from utter obscurity. Names are
the signs of things, and the name of Jesus has survived all shocks;it has
passedalmostunchanged into all languages. All else seems to perish, it never;
like a conservative elementit leavens all languages with. out losing its own
identity.
(E. Paxton Hood.)
Seeing Jesus
C. H. Spurgeon.I. WHY FAITH IS COMPARED TO THE SIGHT. IS not
sight, in many respects, the noblest of all the senses?To be deprived of any of
our sensesis a greatloss, but perhaps the greatestdeprivation of all is the loss
of sight. They who lose sight lose the noblest of human faculties.
1. Forobserve that sight is marvelously quick. How wondrously fastand far it
travels! We know not where heavenmay be, but faith takes us there in
contemplation in a single moment. We cannottell when the Lord may come;it
may not be for centuries yet, but faith steps over the distance in a moment,
and sees Him coming in the clouds of heaven, and hears the trump of
resurrection. It would be very difficult, indeed it would be impossible for us to
travel backwardin any other chariot than that of faith, for it is faith which
helps us to see the creationof the world, when the morning stars sang
together, and the sons of God shouted for joy. Faith takes us to Calvary's
summit, and we stand and see our Saviour as plainly as did His mother when
she stoodsorrowfully at the cross-foot.
2. Is not faith like sight, too, for its largeness?Whata faculty faith has for
grasping everything, for it layeth hold upon the past, the present, and the
future. It pierceth through most intricate things, and seethGod producing
goodout of all the tortuous circumstances ofprovidence. And what is more,
faith does what the eye cannot do — it sees the infinite; it beholds the
invisible; it looks upon that which eve hath not seen, which ear hath not
heard.
3. Is not faith wondrously like sight from its powerto affect the mind and
enable a man to realise a thing? If it is real faith, it makes the Christian man
in dealing with God feel towards Godas though he saw Him; it gives him the
same awe, and yet the same joyous confidence which he would have if he were
capable of actually beholding the Lord. Faith, when it takes a stand at the foot
of the cross, makesus hate sin and love the Saviour just as much as though we
had seenour sins placed to Christ's account, and had seenthe nails driven
through His hands and feet, and seenthe bloody scourges as theymade the
sacreddrops of blood to fall.

II. FAITH, THE SIGHT OF THE SOUL, IS HERE SPOKEN OF AS A
CONTINUOUS THING. "We see Jesus."It does not say, "We cansee Jesus"
— that is true enough: the spiritual eye can see the Saviour; nor does it say,
"We have seenHim"; that also is a delightful fact, we have seenthe Lord, and
we bays rejoicedin seeing Him; nor does the text say, "We shall see Him,"
though this is our pride and our hope, that "whenHe shall appear, we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is";but the text says, "We see Jesus";we
do see Him now and continually. This is the common habit of the Christian; it
is the element of his spiritual life; it is his most delightful occupation;it is his
constantpractice. "We see Jesus." Iam afraid some of us forgetthis.
1. Forinstance, we see Jesus Christas our Saviour, we being sinners still. And
is it not a delightful thing always to feel one's ,elf a sinner, and always to stand
looking to Christ as one's Saviour, thus beholding Him evermore?
2. Should not this, also, be the mode of our life in another respect? We are
now disciples. Being savedfrom our former conversation, we are now become
the disciples of the Lord Jesus;and ought we not, as disciples, to be constantly
with our Master? Oughtnot this to be the motto of our life, "We see Jesus "?
Let us carry Christ on our heart, still thinking of Jesus, seeing Him at all
times.
3. Would it not also be very much for our comfortif we were ,o see Jesus
always as our Friend in our sojourn here? We should never be alone if we
could see Jesus;or at least, if we were it would be a blessedsolitude. We
should never feel desertedif we could see Jesus;we should have the best of
helpers. I know not if we should feel weak if we always saw Him, for He would
be our strength and our song, He would become our salvation.
4. Would it not be much better for us if we were to see Jesus as our
Forerunner? If our faith could see Jesus as making our bed in our sickness,
and then standing by our side in the lastsolemn article, to conduct us safely
through the iron gates, should we not then look upon death in a very different
light?
5. If we see Jesus, being always with us, from morn till eve, in life and in
death, what noble Christians it will make us! Now we shall not getangry with
eachother so quickly. We shall see Jesus;and we cannotbe angry when that
dear loving face is in view. And when we have been affronted, we shall be very
ready to forgive when we see Jesus. Who canhate his brother when he sees
that face, that tender face, more marred than that of any man? When we see
Jesus, do you think we shall getworldly?

III. SOMETIMESOUR FAITH, LIKE OUR SIGHT, IS NOT QUITE
CLEAR. Everything that has life has variations. A block of woodis not
affectedby the weather, but a living man is. You may drive a stake into the
ground, and it will feel no influence of spring, summer, autumn, or winter;
but if the stake be alive, and you drive it into the soilwhere there is moisture,
it will soonbegin to sprout, and you will be able to tell when spring and winter
are coming by the changes that take place in the living tree. Life is full of these
changes;do not wonder, then, if you experience them.
IV. FAITH, LIKE SIGHT, HAS GREAT GROWTH. Our children, in a
certain sense, seeas truly when they are a day old as when they are grown up
to be twenty years old; but we must not suppose that they see as accurately,
for they do not. I think observations would teachus that little children see all
things as on a level surface, and that distant objects seemto them to be near,
for they have not yet receivedexperience enoughto judge of the relative
position of things. That is an acquired knowledge, andno doubt very early
acquired, but still it is learned as a matter of mental experience. And let me
say, though you may not have noticed it, all our measures ofdistance by the
eye are matters which have to be gained by habit and observation. When I
first went to Switzerland, with a friend, from Lucerne we saw a mountain in
the distance which we were going to climb. I pointed out a place where we
should stop half-way up, and I said, "We shall be there in about four hours
and a half." "Fourhours and a half!" my friend said, "I'd undertake to walk
it in ten minutes." "No, not you." "Well, but half an hour!" He lookedagain
and said, "Anybody could get there in half an hour!" It seemedno distance at
all. And yet when we came to toil up, the four hours and a half turned into five
or six before we reachedthe place. Our eyes were not accustomedto
mountains, and we were not able to measure them; and it is only by
considerable experience that you getto understand what a mountain is, and
how a long distance appears. You are altogetherdeceived, and do not know
the position of things till you become wiser. And it is just so with faith. Faith
in the Christian when he first gets it, is true and saving; but it is not in
proportion. Let us ask, then, of the Lord, that He will increase our faith till
the mental eye shall become clearand bright, and we shall be made meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, to be with Christ, and to see
Him as He is. If you have but little faith, remember that that will save you.
The little diamond is as much a diamond as the Koh-i-noor. So little faith is as
truly the faith of God's electas the greatestfaith. If you do but see Jesus,
though it be but by the cornerof your eye, yet if you see Him, you shall be
saved; and though you may not see as much of Christ as advanced saints do,

yet if you see enough of Him to trust Him, to rely on Him entirely, your sins
which are many are forgiven, and you shall yet receive grace forgrace, until
you shall see Him in His glory.
V. IT IS AT ALL TIMES A VERY SIMPLE THING TO LOOK. If there be
life in a look, glory be to God for such a provision, because it is available for
eachone of us! Sinner, if thou wouldst be saved, there is nothing for thee to
think upon but Christ. Do thy sins trouble thee? Go to Him, and trust in Him,
and the moment thou lookestto Him thou art saved. "Oh," says one, "but I
cannot do that; my faith is so weak." Well, whenI walk about and see a
beautiful sight, very seldom do I think about my own sight; my mind is
occupiedwith the sight, and so let it be with you. Nevermind that eye; think
more about the vision to be seen. Think of Christ. It would be a pitiful thing if,
when there were some greatprocessionin the streets, all you thought about
was your own eye;you would see but very little. Think less about your faith,
and more about Jesus.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The best of all sights
C. H. Spurgeon.I. Regardthe glorious sight of Jesus as a COMPENSATION.
We do not yet see Him acknowledgedas King of kings by all mankind, and
this causes us greatsorrow. "But," saiththe apostle, "we see Jesus,"and this
sight compensates forall others, for we see Him now, no longermade a little
lowerthan the angels, and tasting the bitterness of death, but " crownedwith
glory and honour." We see Him no more after the flesh, in shame and
anguish; far more ravishing is the sight, for we see His work accomplished,
His victory complete, His empire secure. He sits as a priest upon the throne at
the right hand of God, from hence forth expecting till His enemies are made
His footstool.
1. This is a Divine compensationfor the tarrying of His visible kingdom,
because it is the major part of it. The main battle is won.
2. The compensationis all the greaterbecause our Lord's enthronement is the
pledge of all the rest. The putting of all things under Him, which as yet we see
not, is guaranteedto us by what we do see. This is the antidote to all
depressionof spirit, the stimulus to hopeful perseverance, the assurance ofjoy
unspeakable.
II. Nor is this sight a mere compensationfor others which as yet are denied us,
it is in itself the cause of presentEXULTATION. This is true in so many ways
that time would rail us to attempt to enumerate them.

1. "We see Jesus," andin Him we see our former unhappy condition for ever
ended. We were fallen in Adam, but we see in Jesus our ruin retrieved by the
secondAdam. We weepas we confess our transgressions,but we see Jesus.
and sing for joy of heart, since He hath finished transgression, made an end of
sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness.
2. The same is sweetlytrue of the present, for we see our present condition to
be thrice blessedby virtue of our union with Him.
3. We see self, and blush and are ashamedand dismayed; "but we see Jesus,"
and His joy is in us, and our joy is full. What a vision is this for you, when you
see Jesus, andsee yourself complete in Him, perfectin Christ Jesus?
4. Such a sight effectually clears our earthly future of all apprehension. It is
true we may yet be sorelytempted, and the battle may go hard with us, but we
see Jesus triumphant, and by this sign we graspthe victory.
III. "We see Jesus" withgladdestEXPECTATION.
1. His glorious person is to us the picture and the pledge of what we shall be;
for "it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."
2. Normay we alone derive comfort as to our future from His person, we may
also be made glad by a hope as to His place. Where we see Jesus to be, there
shall we also be. His heaven is our heaven. His prayer secures that we shall be
with Him, where He is, that we may behold His glory.
3. The glory of Jesus strikes the eye at once, and thus we are made to exult in
His position, for it, too, is ours. He will give to us to sit upon His throne, even
as He sits upon the Father's throne. He hath made us kings and priests unto
God, and we shall reign for everand ever.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Of the title Jesus
W. Gouge.The apostlehad before called Christ the Son of God, the first
begotten, God, Lord, which are titles proper to His Divine nature. But here he
speakethofHis excellencyas man, and thereupon giveth Him that title which
setteth out the distinct reasonwhy, being God, He assumedman's nature:
namely, that He might be a fit and able Saviour of man. Fit, as He was man;
able, as He was God. Well may this title Jesus, in regard of the significationof
it, be given unto Christ. For —
1. He was a true Saviour (Hebrews 8:2), not a typical Saviour, as Joshua and
other like saviours (Nehemiah 9:27).

2. He was a most free Saviour. According to His mercy He savedus (Titus
3:5). Not for price (1 Peter1:18).
3. He was an all-sufficient Saviour. He satisfiethDivine justice, endured the
infinite curse of the law, overcame death, hell, and him that had the powerof
them (ver. 14; Revelation1:18).
4. He was an universal Saviour. The Saviour of all that ale or shall be saved(1
Timothy 4:10).
5. He was a total Saviour. He sayethsoul and body (1 Corinthians 15:20).
6. He was an everlasting Saviour. He brings all that believe in Him to
everlasting life. As He is, so He was from the beginning, and ever will continue
so (Hebrews 13:8; Revelation13:8; Hebrews 7:24).
7. He was a perfect Saviour (Hebrews 7:25). He leaves nothing simply in the
case ofsalvationfor any other to do.
8. He is the only Saviour (Acts 4:12: Isaiah63:5).On these grounds it becomes
us —
1. To considerthe need that we have of a Saviour. This will make us inquire
how we may be saved(Acts 16:30).
2. To fly to Christ for salvation. He invites all so to do (John 7:37). He casts
awaynone that come unto Him (John 6:37).
3. To trust on Him (Acts 16:31;1 Timothy 4:10).
4. To rejoice in Him (Luke 1:47).
5. To bless God for Him (Luke 1:68).
6. To serve Him who sayeth us (Luke 1:74, 75).
7. To do all in His name (Colossians3:17).
(W. Gouge.)
Christ's condescension
F. Marts.Inthe history of Moravionmissions we read of a missionary who
undertook to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ to the suffering,
despised, and down-trodden slaves of the WestIndies. So cruelly we, re they
treated, so hard were they worked, so mercilesslywere they flogged, that their
spirits rankled with bitterest hostility to the more favoured race which
doomed them to this hopeless condition. Under these unhappy circumstances
the missionarycould not get a hearing. It was a grave problem how to reach
their hearts, win their sympathies, and thus fulfil the purposes of his mission.
At last he saw a way to overcome the difficulty. How? By selling himself into

servitude. He because a slave, he sharedthe same fare, and endured the same
privations as his dusky brethren. Thus he won his wayto their hearts. Even
so, it was needful that God should show sympathy by stooping to our low
estate, and making Himself one with us. So Christ the EternalWord was born
in helplessness like us, He hungered and thirsted like us, He toiled and
suffered like us, He was tempted and tried like us, He wept and prayed like us.
(F. Marts.)
Christ's condescension
J. Trapp.ThatHe might be in a condition to suffer death, this Sun of
Righteousnesswentten degrees backward, not only below His Father (John
14:28), but below the angels;for man (as man) is inferior t,, the angels.
(J. Trapp.)
For the suffering of death crowned.
Jesus crownedfor death
G. G. Findlay.It is Jesus, Sonof Mary, Child of man, whose appearance we
hail; not now, as in chap. 1., the Son of God, resplendent in His Father's glory
with His holy angels, sustaining creationby His word. The writer is
approaching the Redeemer's personfrom the opposite side, and adopting
quite a different line of reflection from that with which the Epistle
commenced. He will afterwards unite both conceptions in his definition of
"our greatHigh Priest, Jesus the Son of God." We must allow him to work
out his argument in his own way. Here is a Man, then, in whom humanity is
lifted from the dust, and once more grows consciousofits primal dignity. The
advent of Jesus raises immeasurablyour conceptionof the possibilities of
human nature, and supplies a new and magnificent answerto the old
question, "Whatis man?" Prophecy is outdone by what we see in Jesus of
man's greatness as the objectof the Divine regard. And this Leader of our
salvationis "forerunner" of His brethren's exaltation, both in earth and
heaven. On every ground we find ours, lees compelledto refer the predicate
"crownedwith glory and honour," to the earthly life and human relationship
of our Saviour. Surely it is in this environment that we see Jesus. We to-day
"see Jesus" in the story of the Four, as the readers of Ibis letter saw Him in
the living words of His eye-witnessesandministers. And "we see Him for the
suffering of death crownedwith glory and honour." No words could more
fitly express the strange blending of glory and suffering visible throughout the
earthly course ofJesus, — glory ever leading on to suffering, and finding in
death its climax and hidden purpose. If man's ideal greatness is the starting-
point of the writer's thought, the death of the cross is always its centre. The

former, for sinful (Hebrews 1:3) and death-bound man, can only win its
realisationthrough the latter. Jesus is crownedfor death. Willingly would
Israelhave given Him in life the Messiah's crown. Theycould not understand
why One so high in the grace ofGod, so rich in kingly qualities and powers,
did not take the lastremaining step and mount to David's throne. Their fury
againstHim at the last was in the breasts of many who cried, "Awaywith
Him!" the rage of a bitter disappointment. They did not see that the higher He
was raisedin favour with God and men, the nearerand the more needful
became His death. It is enough to refer to the scene ofthe transfiguration, and
of the royal entry into Jerusalem, to show the profound connectionwhich
existed alike in the mind of Jesus, in the purpose of God, and in the sequence
of history betweenChrist's human glorificationand His sacrificialdeath.
(G. G. Findlay.)
Exaltation in humiliation
A. B. Bruce, D. D.— The plain meaning of the text seems to be that Jesus was
crownedwith glory and honour with reference to the suffering of death, in
order that by the grace or favour of God He might taste death for men. This
rendering makes the crowning antecedentto death, a fact occurring in the
earthly life of Jesus, an exaltationin the humiliation, a higher even in the
lower, a glory consummated in heaven b,t begun even on earth. If I am met
with the scepticalquestion, With what glory and honour can the man Jesus be
said to have been crownedon earth? I reply, With just such glory and honour
as are spokenof in the third and fifth chapters of this same Epistle: with the
glory of a Moses and the honour of an Aaron; the glory of being the leader of
the people out of Egypt into the promised land, that is, of being the "Captain
of Salvation";the honour of being the High Priestof men, procuring for them,
through the sacrifice ofHimself, life and blessedness. The gloryand honour
spokenof as conferred by Jesus may thus quite well be those connectedwith
His appointment to the honourable and glorious office of Apostle and High
Priestof our profession. This, accordingly, is the thought I find in this text:
Jesus, "crownedfor death," by being appointed to an office whereby His
death, instead of being a mere personalexperience of the common l-t, became
a death for others, and a humiliation, was transmuted into a signalmark of
Divine favour. This crowning had a twofold aspectand relation; a subjective
and an objective side, a relation to the will of Christ and a relation to the will
of God. It would not have been complete unless there had been both an act of
self-devotionon the part of Christ and an act of sovereignappointment on the
part of God. The subjective aspectis in abeyance here, though it is not
forgottenin the Epistle; it receives full recognitionin those places where it is

taught that Christ's priestly offering was Himself. Here it is the objective
Godwardaspectthat is emphasised, as appears from the remarkable
expression, "by the grace ofGod," and from the line of thought contained in
the following verse, to be hereafter considered. There was a subjective grace
in Christ which made Him willing to sacrifice His individual life for the good
of the whole, but there was also conferredon Him by His Father the signal
favour that His life, freely given in self-sacrifice,had universal significance
and value. Kindred to this famous text, understood as explained, is Christ's
beatitude pronouncing the persecutedfor righteousness happy; Paul's
statementto the Philippian Church, "Unto you it is given as a favour
(ἐχαρίσθη)in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to
suffer for His sake";and Peter's declarationto the strangers scattered
abroad, "If ye be reproachedfor the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the
Spirit of glory and of God restethon you." Kindred also in import are all the
texts in which Christ speaks ofHis approaching passionas His glorification, a
mode of viewing the Passionvery common in the Johannine report of our
Lord's sayings. I only add to these citations a mere reference to the voices
from heaven pronouncing Jesus God's beloved Sonwhen He manifested at the
Jordan and on the Mount of Transfiguration His willingness to endure
suffering in connectionwith His Messianic vocation, and in connection
therewith to the reflection occurring in the SecondEpistle of Peter relating to
the latter event, "He received from God the Father honour and glory, when
there came such a voice to Him from the excellentglory, This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am wellpleased." With these Divine voices stand in contrast
the voices from hell uttered by Satanin the temptation. The God sent voices
say in effect, "Thouart My beloved Son because ThoudevotestThyself to the
arduous careerof a Saviour, and I show My favour unto Thee by solemnly
setting Thee apart to Thy high and holy office." The Satanic voices say, "Thou
art the Son of God, it seems;use Thy privilege, then, for Thine own
advantage." Godshows His grace unto His Sonby appointing Him to an office
in which He will have an opportunity of doing a signalservice to men at a
greatcostof suffering to Himself. Satan cannotconceive ofJesus being the
Son of God at unless sonshipcarry along with it exemption from all arduous
tasks and irksome hardships, provocations, and pains. God puts a stamp of
Divinity on self-sacrifice, SatanassociatesDivinity with selfishness. There can
be no doubt, therefore, that the crowning, as I conceive it, is an idea familiar
to the New Testamentwriters. The only question that may legitimately be
askedis, whether the thought I find in the text is relevant to the connectionof
thought in the passage, andserviceable to the purpose of the Epistle, that of
instructing in Christian truth readers who needed to be againtaught the

merest elements of the Christian faith. To this question I can have little
hesitationin giving an affirmative answer. Was it not desirable to show to
men who stumbled at the humiliating circumstances ofChrist's earthly lot.
that there was not merely a glory coming after the humiliation, compensating
for it, but a glory in the humiliation itself? This ethical instruction was much
more urgently needed than a merely theologicalinstruction as to the purpose
and effectof Christ's exaltation to heaven, viz., that it made His death already
endured have universal significance and value. The exaltationneeded no
apology, it spoke for itself; what was neededwas to remove the stigma from
the state of humiliation, and such, I cannot but think, is one of the leading
aims of the Epistle. The blinded Jew said, "How dishonourable and shameful
that death of Jesus;how hard to believe that He who endured it could be
Messiahand God's well-belovedSon!" The writer replies, "Notdisgrace, but
grace, favour, honour, and glory do I see there; this careerof suffering as one
which it was honorable for Christ to pass through, and to which it well
became the sovereignLord to subject His Son. For while to taste death in itself
was a humiliation to the Sonof God, to taste it for others was indeed most
glorious." It is a recommendation of the interpretation here advocated, that
under it the crowning is not subsequent to the being made lower than angels,
but, as in the Psalm, contemporaneous withit. It scarcelyrequires to be added
that the glory in the humiliation is not exclusive of the glory after it. The full
thesis of the Epistle on this theme is: "Firstlower, then higher; nay, a higher
in the lower."
(A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
Crownedwith glory and honour.
On the ascensionofChrist
Bp. Dehon.Who is it that, "for the suffering of death, is crownedwith glory
and honour"? Undoubtedly the Being in whom existed the wonderful union of
the human and the Divine natures. It was not solely the Divinity of the Son
returning to its pristine abode. That was never "made lower than the angels."
That being incapable of passion, never tasted" he suffering of death." Of the
place and state, to which our Redeemeris exalted, we can form no adequate
conceptions. Here let us pause and reflect;what glory to the fallen nature of
man, that the Eternal Son should assume it, even to dwell in it on earth, and
say of its humble offspring, "My brethren are these"!How immeasurably
great, then, its honour and advancement when He is exaltedin it to the right
hand of the Father; "angels andauthorities and powers being made subject
unto Him"! While we perceive that it was in our nature our Saviour passed
into His glory, our advancementhereby will be more impressive if we consider

that in entering upon His joy He "openedthe kingdom of heaven to all
believers." What surer pledge of our inheritance in heaven can we have than
the exaltationof Him, in our nature, to the possessionof "all powerin heaven
and in earth"? But of this interesting and stupendous event of the Ascension,
where are the evidences? How shallwe believe that this greatthing hath been
done for us; this thing so wonderful, and of such amazing consequences?
1. Behold, I bring to you the types which "at sundry times, and in divers
manners," God vouchsafedto give of what He would accomplishin the great
Redeemer. See Enochtranslatedto heaven under the Patriarchal
dispensation, and Elijah under the Mosaic. See the leaders of Israel, after the
sojourning of the people in the wilderness, conducting them through the flood
of Jordan to the Canaanof rest and felicity. See the high priest passing
through the vail into the holy of holies, after baying made the greatexpiation
with the blood of the sacrifice, there to appearin the presence of Godin
behalf of the people.
2. Again: I bring to you that venerable evidence which the Almighty hath so
often employed in the service of truth — prophecy (see Daniel7:13, 14; Psalm
24:7; Psalm 68:13). What is this but prophecy on one side of the event, as
history on the other, giving evidence to times past, present, and future, of the
ascensionof men's Saviour into heaven?
3. This brings me to observe that we have the historicalevidence of those who
were eye-witnessesofthe fact. These were not a few men; they were the whole
company of the apostles;these were men worthy of all credit, for they were
eminently honest, consistent, scrupulous, explicit, and unvarying.(1) Our first
emotion upon contemplating the ascensionofour Lord is amazement. The
lustre of His virtue in life, and His sublime equanimity in death, transport us
with the perfectibility of our nature.(2) But from amazement at this precious
part of the Christian dispensationlet us rouse ourselves to considerour
obligations to respecta nature which God has so highly exalted and destined
for such n-bin felicity. Are we members of a body of which the Son of God is
the head, and shall we not fear to pollute so illustrious a fellowship? Have we
a representative in the inmost presence chamber of heaven, and shall we sink
into a mean commerce with vice or debase, by folly and wickedness, the
nature He has exalted?(3)We may further observe the wisdom and propriety
of raising our affections, anddirecting our pursuits, to the greatrealities of
the future existence.
(Bp. Dehon.)
The coronationof our King

W. B. Leach.Itwas long ago predicted that the Lord Jesus should reign in
Zion. Of the greatnessofHis power, of the glory of His majesty, of the
extensionof His kingdom, of the perpetuity of His government, prophets
spake and poets sang. They saw the days of the exalted Messiahafaroff, and
were glad.
I. THE REGAL CHARACTER OF OUR EXALTED LORD. Much of the
happiness of a nation, especiallyif the authority of a monarch be absolute and
his will is the law, depends upon his intellectual and moral character. Let this
sentiment be applied with all reverence and humility to our exalted Redeemer,
and we shall instantly exclaim, "Blessedis the nation whose God is the Lord of
the people, whom He hath chosenfor His own inheritance." To swaythe
sceptre of universal dominion, the King of Zion possesseseveryperfectionin
an eminent degree.
1. "In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." At one
comprehensive glance He beholds every creature and every event, past,
present, and to come, and can either permit or prevent, excite or restrain,
according to the counselof His unerring will.
2. He is also the Lord of all power and might, whose kingdomcannot be
moved, and whose dominions are the unlimited expanse of universal nature.
3. His goodness is equal to His greatness,and forms a material part of it. How
unnumbered are its manifestations, how numerous and various its recipients.
"The Lord is good to all. and His tender mercies are over all His works."
4. And what shall we say of His grace and love? What king has ever been so
ill-required by his ungrateful subjects? And yet, instead of laying
righteousness to the line, and truth to the plummet, instead of exerting His
authority, and putting forth the thunder of His power in the execution of His
justice, and the fulfilment of His threatenings, He laid down His life for us.
5. Norcan we forgetHis mercy. What crimes it has pardoned, what insults it
has endured.
6. And is He not the faithful, compassionate, andunchangeable friend of His
people? How near are they to His heart! How tenderly does He pity their
afflictions, and sympathise with their sorrows!
7. And who has not been impressedwith the Lord's condescension? Although
He is "the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity," He is nigh unto all that
call upon Him in truth. "He dwells with the humble."
II. THE KINGDOM OVER WHICH HE PRESIDES. In one sense the entire
universe is His vast domain, comprehending the numerous worlds which shine

in yonder firmament. But we speak now not of His essentialgovernment, but
rather of His mediatorial authority, as our Redeemerand Saviour, who,
having purged our sins, satdown at the right hand of the throne of God. This
is a spiritual, not a temporal, jurisdiction, unless it be so far as the latter is
subservient to the former. It is a religious dominion i, the soul and among the
societyof goodmen, which our Lord came from heaven to establish, and
which appears when the enmity of the carnalmind is subdued, and when
"grace reigns through righteousness unto eternallife" in the conversionof
sinners, and in the establishment of the saints upon their holy faith. In this
spiritual and restrictedsense the regalauthority of our Lord includes the
church on earth, composedof all His devoted followers ofevery period of
time, of every part of the world, of every name and denomination, of every age
and condition — and the church in heaven, constituted of "the spirits of just
men made perfect." To govern this spiritual empire "our Lord hath
establishedHis throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all." Upon
that throne He sits, receiving the homage of angels, archangels, and glorified
spirits, accepting the prayers and praises of His saints on earth; supplying all
our wants, guarding, guiding, and governing His people, both in their
individual, domestic, and religious capacity;extending and upholding His
cause in the world by the agencyof His Spirit, His providence, and His
servants;and overruling all the movements of nature, all the revolutions of
nations, all the occurrences ofindividuals, families, and churches, for His own
glory, for the welfare of the soul, for the successofHis gospel, forthe
subjugation of sin and Satan, and for the accomplishmentof His purposes
which are all in verity and faithfulness.
III. HIS CORONATION.
1. The period selectedforJesus to be "crownedwith glory and honour " was
the termination of His Messiahshipupon earth and His ascensionto haven.
2. But how shall we describe the diadem which He wears? It is not a wreathof
laurels, it is not a garland of flowers which encircled the brow of the heroes of
antiquity; nor does it resemble the crowns worn by the monarchs of modern
times. These, though costlyand splendid, are but corruptible and fading,
composedonly of burnished metal and polished stones extractedfrom the
recessesofthe earth which we tread beneath our feet, whereas the Redeemer's
crownis a beautiful circle of celestiallight, a concentrationof luminous beams
above the brightness of the sun, a crownof glory which fadeth not away.
3. A part of the ceremonyof coronationconsists ofanointing the monarch
with holy oil. In concertwith this ancientusage, we read prophetically of
Jesus being " anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows";in allusion

to His mediatorial superiority, and to the unmeasured unction of the Holy
Ghost, which descendedupon Him, for "God giveth not the Spirit by measure
unto Him."
4. How exaltedis His throne: the seatof happiness and glory (see Isaiah6:1-3;
Revelation4:2-4).
5. How untarnished is His sceptre, emphaticallycalled "a right sceptre,"
rightly obtained and rightly employed, the rod of universal authority, the staff
of mercy surmounted by the dove, and held forth to encourageour approach.
6. Much has been said of the attire of kings at their coronation, but Christ's
are not formed of the frail and lowly produce of the ermine and the silkworm,
nor adorned with glittering stars of burnished metal; nor made by human art,
nor assailableby the moth or the rust, nor likely to survive the wearer:no,
Christ's robes are vestments of unsullied purity and uncreated light.
7. The last particular to be noticed is the attendants — the spectators ofHis
glory.Theyare describedas a number that no man can enumerate. In
improving this subject —
1. Let us join the hallelujahs of the heavenly best, and hail the exaltation and
coronationof our Lord.
2. Let us recollectthe peculiar privileges of His subjects. Theyare "fellow
citizens of the saints and of the household of God." As such they have a share
in their Lord's affection, they have constantaccessto His throne, to His house,
to His table; He protects them, He communes with them, supplies their wants,
and will make them happy.
3. Let us not forget the duty of His people. It is incumbent on us, if we sustain
this honourable appellation, to be very observantof His commands, to be very
zealous for His honour, and for the extension of His kingdom upon the earth,
and to be very devoted to His fear.
4. What shall we say of the enemies of our Lord the King? What I has He
enemies? Is it possible that the Son of God can have a foe? CanHe be opposed
who laid down His life for us? Yes, there are thousands of adversaries averse
to the peacefuland holy reign of the Redeemer. Who are they? I see them, not
merely the ranks of avowedinfidels and scoffers, but in the characterof
drunkards, sabbath-breakers, swearers, liars, the lewd, lovers of pleasure
more than of God, self-righteous Pharisees, andthe like. Oh, throw aside the
weapons of)our rebellion, come as penitents to His footstool.
(W. B. Leach.)
Crownedwith glory of saving life

B. Waugh.This crownof Jesus is no glittering gilt rim; this glory is no glare
and splendour of a palace, and the honour is no mere courtliness of courtiers
and subordinates and pomp of a heavenly state. The greatbreak into cries of
praise to Him because He is greater;the grand, because He had done more
grandly than they all. Now come with me and let us understand what is Divine
glory and honour. Come with me to a great hall in London. It is the
anniversary of Homes and Refuges forBoys. Sweeping circles of seats rise on
the platform one above another, all full of boys. Before the platform is the hill
crossedby multitudes of seats, allfilled, crowdedwith people. In the centre, f
the greatcircles ofthe boys wonder, and right in the front of the platform, is a
little table, behind the table is a chair, and in it sits a peer of the realm. My
story begins at the moment when the prizes are given. Now fancy the scene.
The earl rises. The table is piled up with articles, and certain boys approach
one by one. First comes the winner of the prize for punctuality. Then comes
the prize for writing. Its winner advances to the front and receives it. Next
came the thrift prize for the boy who had spent the leastof his pocketmoney,
and savedthe most in his box. His thrift might have been the actof self-denial,
but I fearit had in it some element of meanness, forthe cheers hasta little of
their swing. Others came, and as eachcarriedoff his prize hands and voices
fell to clapping and shouting, and hearts seemedto bound and sing. Then the
next boy came. Suddenly all the joy went out of the place as light goes when
the gas is put out. And there was a dead silence. To everybody it seemedas if
something was going to happen What was the matter? What we saw was a
little figure standing at one end of the table, evidently timid, and screwing up
his courage,for he was very pale, and had put out his fingers on to the edge of
the table, as it would seemto steady himself. The earl said, "I have now the
honour — "and he paused, and drew himself up. as if making room for a
greatswellof feeling, at the same time lifting something up from the table
almost reverently (it was a little box). He opened it, and took into his hand a
small round medal. The earlcontinued in a subdued tone, "This boy has saved
life!" That boy? A something went right through the place. The audience
could restrain itself no longer, and broke out in tumultuous cheers againand
again, hands and feet and voice. Handkerchiefs were waved, and hundreds of
strong men were in tears. Meanwhile the earl was pinning a medal on the
child's jacket, andthe child himself was lifting the hand he had put out to the
table, and drawing the backerit across his eyes. He could save life, it seemed,
but he could not stand praise, and he quietly sidled away. But his comrades
behind thee chair would not allow that. They gave greatcries of ,"hurrahs,"
which quivered with feelings that had been in no shouts before, standing on
the seats, andlooking over one another's heads. And the boys who had won

the writing-desks and accordions, as he went by, put them down and clapped
him on the back. He had undoubtedly done better than they all. Now those
lads felt something of the grand sacredfeeling with which all heaven casts
down its crowns, and shouts the supreme triumphant glory of Jesus;for that
boy had in him some of the glory sacredwith the sanctity of God, and which
all creatures were made to do homage to, the glory which is the especialglory
of the Saviour of the world.
(B. Waugh.)
Crowning Jesus
W. B. Haynes.The ancientstory runs that when Roman ambassadors paid a
visit of ceremony to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, he presented eachof his visitors
with a crownof gold. But on the morrow the crowns were found on the beads
of the various statues ofthe king which adorned the royal city. The
ambassadors thus at once refusedpersonal rewardand did honour to the
monarch. The dearestjoy we have is to put the crown of our ministry on the
head of Jesus. The best event that can befall heaven's promised crown will be
that it be acceptedof Him.
(W. B. Haynes.)
Taste death for every man.
Christ tasteddeath for all
A. Saphir.I. Let us considerthat the Lord TASTED death. A man may die in a
moment, and then he does not taste death. Men may die in a moment of
excitement, and, as extremes meet, almost m unconsciousness,orwith
calmness and intrepidity, with lion-like courage, as many a warrior; but that
is not tasting death. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was a slow and
painful death; He was "roastedwith fire," as was prefigured by the Paschal
Lamb. MoreoverHe came, as no other finite creature can come. into contact
with death. He tasted death; all that was in death was concentratedin that cup
which the Lord Jesus Christ emptied on the Cross. Daring His lifetime He felt
a burden, sorrow, grief; He saw the sins and sorrows of the people; He had
compassion, andwept. There is no substitution and expiation in the garden —
the anticipation of the substitution was the cause ofHis agony; but on the
Cross He paid the penalty for the sins of men in His own death. But what was
it that He tasted in death? Deathis the curse which sin brings, the penalty of
the brokenlaw, the manifestation of the powerof the devil, the expressionof
the wrath of God; and in all these aspects the Lord Jesus Christ came into
contactwith death, and tasted it to the very last.

II. And notice, He tasted death by the grace ofGod FOR EVERY ONE. We
speak about the pardon of sins. We are pardoned, but all our sins have been
punished. All our sins were laid upon Jesus, everyone was punished. "God
condemned sin in the flesh." He executedjudgment upon air our sins, for
every one of us, for all the children of God. For eachof them Jesus tasted
death. Here there is not merely the forgiveness ofsin, but there is the actual
putting awayof all our sins; and the apostle explains to us that this great and
marvellous mystery of the death of Jesus as our substitute, bearing our sins,
bearing our curse, enduring the penalty of our sins, and overcoming all our
enemies (that is the law, and Satan, and death), that this is in order manifest
unto us the fulness of the perfection of God.
(A. Saphir.)
The humiliation and subsequent glory of Christ
J. Hannam.I. THE HUMILIATION OF JESUS CHRIST. —
1. Presupposesthat, in one respect, He was higher then the angels. He is so, as
the Sonof God(Hebrews 1:5, 6).
2. He was made a little lowerthan the angels as to His condition: a man, a
servant (Isaiah42:1); possesseda true body and a reasonable soul:was the
child born (Isaiah 9:6; John 1:14; Galatians 4:4); and but for a little while,
living thirty-three years in the form of a servant: and was three days subject
to the powerof the grave.
3. And this "for the suffering of death." The Godhead could not suffer, hence
"made lowerthan the angels";made man, in both parts, body and soul, that
He might suffer in both for man. This He has done, and His sufferings were
great;for —(1) His sufferings were universal, affecting every part of His
frame; all His members and senses.(2)Theywere continual; every moment on
the rack till He died.(3) They were without help, without comfort. And as He
suffered in His body, so He suffered in His soul. He suffered —
(a)The wrath of God, which was awfully impressedon His soul.
(b)It was pure wrath, not any contrary mixture to allay it: no comfort from
heaven or earth. "He sparedHim not" (Romans 8:32; Isaiah63:8).(4) It was
the whole of His wrath. It was poured out upon Him to the last drop
(Revelation19:15). And He suffered to "death";"tasteddeath," that is,
actually died. His death was —(i) Violent, not natural, through old age, but in
the prime of life. He was "cut off" (Isaiah 53:8). He is said to "sufferdeath,"
and to be "put to death" (1 Peter 3:18).(ii) Painful. It was many deaths
contrived in one. The Cross was a rack as well as a gibbet. He was "poured

out as water, and His bones were out of joint" (Psalm 22:14-18).(iii)Shameful.
Inflicted only on the basestand vilest of men; upon slaves;and thus He was
numbered with transgressors(Isaiah53:12).(iv) Cursed. Hence He is said to
be a curse for us; "cursedis every one," &c. (Galatians 3:18, referring to
Deuteronomy 21:23).(v)Lingering. Notdespatchedat once, orafter a few
minutes' Suffering; but endured hours of the most excruciating agonyall the
time He hung upon the Cross (Luke 23:33).(vi) And all this suffering for
"every man"; He being the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1
John 2:1).
II. THE REWARD OF HIS MERIT AS IT RESPECTS HIMSELF.
"Crowned," &c.
1. This was done in His resurrection from the dead, in which He was declared
to be the Son of God, &c. (Romans 1:3, 4).
2. In His ascension:this was glorious and honourable (Psalm47:5, 6;
Ephesians 4:8).
3. In His being setdown on the right hand of the Majestyon high (Hebrews
1:3): has obtained a name above every name (Philippians 2:9); all powerin
heaven and earth is committed to Him (Matthew 28:18; Isaiah9:6; John 5:22,
23).
III. THE GRAND SOURCE AND SPRING OF THE WHOLE; the "grace of
God." Our salvationis wholly owing to the free mercy and grace ofGod in
Christ Jesus:not to any deserving of ours. It is altogetherthe effectof Divine
love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9, 10). It is in the way of mere grace and favour —
1. That Jesus humbled Himself to death for us (2 Corinthians 8:9).
2. That we are canedto repentance, faith, holiness, and usefulness in the
world, and in the Church (Galatians 1:15).
3. That we are enabled to believe, in order to our salvation(Acts 18:27).
4. That we are pardoned and justified according to the "riches of His grace"
(Romans 3:24; Ephesians 1:7).
5. That we are finally saved, and put into possessionofthe heavenly
inheritance (Ephesians 2:5; Zechariah4:7).To conclude:
1. Let us cherishhumbling and contrite views of ourselves, onaccountof our
sins, which led Jesus to endure such dreadful sufferings on our account
(Zechariah 12:10).
2. While we entertain the most adoring thoughts of His love to us, let us yield
to Him the most entire obedience and love (1 John 4:19).

(J. Hannam.)
Our franchise
W. Birch.God, in Christ, forgives sin, and restores the prodigal. In our
country at the present time, it is the lot of a favoured few to possess the
franchise, or in ether words, the freedom of being recognisedcitizens of our
empire: but Jesus Christtasted death to give the franchise of heaven's
freedom to every man. He tasteddeath to make every man a citizen of the
Heavenly Jerusalem.
1. Jesus Christtasted death to give every man THE FRANCHISE OF
PARDON. It is the pardon of all sin — full pardon. A young man in an office
stole his master's money, and injured his business very consider. ably; and the
youth, being convicted, was brought before his employer, when he said, "Oh,
sir, do forgive me'" The master replied, "Well, I will forgive you as much as I
can." But our goodFather has no need to say He forgives us as much as He
can. He has power of love to forgive us fully, and blots out our sin from His
memory as if it had never happened.
II. Jesus Christ by the grace ofGod tasteddeath to extend to every man THE
FRANCHISE OF NOBILITY. We sayof the ancient aristocracyofour land
that they possessthe blue blood of nobility. The blood of Christ, when spoken
of in the New Testament, oftenmeans the life power of our Saviour. He tasted
death that every man might receive His life-force. What a splendid position,
what a glorious inheritance! And "for every man"! You, perhaps, may say,
"It is impossible for every man to become noble!" An ignorant personmay
tell a gardenerthat it is impossible to make a red rose grow on that white rose
bush; but in two years afterwards, when the gardener has grafted a slip into
it, the red rose appears. People may say that it is impossible to make a red
rose grow upon a white rose bush. The gardenerreplies, "Impossible it is
done; it is there! " If you wish to prove whether Christ's words be true or not,
try them by the testof yourself. Believe, and do, what Christ tells you; and if
you do not become noble. if you do not possessthe spirit of godliness, then
believe, but not till then, that true nobility is impossible.
III. Jesus also tasteddeath to give every man THE FRANCHISE OF
PRIESTHOOD.Jesushas given every man the right of a free access unto
God. Jesus Christhas tasteddeath in order that the sun of our Father's love
might shine direct upon the heart of every man.
IV. Jesus Christ has tasted death to give us THE FRANCHISE OF
ROYALTY. We are joint-heirs with Christ of the Kingdom of God. It is a
common saying when we see anybody very cheerful, "He is as happy as a

king." Jesus has tasteddeath that every man might be happy as only kings
unto God can be. He has given us all that is necessaryfor our enjoyment.
Christ has given us powerto act kingly.
(W. Birch.)
Tasting death for every man
A. Cave, D. D.Have you ever remarked how the greatestefforts of the world's
genius seemto bare been calledout by the recognitionof this tasting death for
every man? Shall I speak ofpoetry? There are times — I do not know
whether it is an: improper thing to say — but there are times, it seems to me,
that the exquisite music of Milton touches the deeper springs of my spiritual
life. I turn to " Paradise Regained" againand again. It puts me into a
meditative mood as I see the features of the life of the Redeemersteadily
unfolding; they seem, too, by their exquisite simplicity of utterance, to put me
to a quiet and calm mood. True, the poet does not hold the views that I hold
about Jesus. True, he seems to mar much that he has to say by his Unitarian
conception. Nevertheless, as I come under the spell of his words it seems to me
that the very noblest and best that was evercalledforth even from Milton was
calledforth as he stands before this Cross ofthe Redeemer. I would turn to
the one that might be calledthe German Milton, I mean Klopstotk As I have
read his "Messias"I have seenhow the best he could write has been invoked
from him as he comes face to face with the Cross where Jesus is tasting death
for every man. He represents for us those three crosses onthe hillside. We see
the soldieras he rises forth with his spear to pierce the side; we hear the clank
of the armour as the soldiers go awayafter their deed is done; our eyes fall
upon the circle of the weeping women, and then for a seasonone is left alone
with the three crosses;and then as I read these words of Klopstock's again,
there is in them the highest poetry; and I am perfectly sure of this, that the
highest and bestthing that Klopstock did, he did as his eye fell upon this
Cross of the Redeemer. And of painting is not the same thing true? Will not
greatpicture after greatpicture rise before your minds? Perhaps some of you
may have heard that touching story in the plains of Lombardy. You step a
little out of the ordinary track to a common monastery by the roadside, and
there you find it has its little portion of history. You turn within, and you are
shown a somewhatfadedpicture of the crucifixion, and its story is more
interesting than the picture. A monk, towards the close of his life, had come to
feel that he had a gift of painting, and an order comes to him from his
Superior, that after baying embellished cell after cell of his brethren, he
should paint a crucifixion for the altar. "No," he says, "it is beyond my
faculty." However, the order is supreme, and he obeys. He feels it impossible

to get the sort of face that he requires, and he finishes the altar-picture —
finishes it in unusual form, leaving the face out. In the interval the man
becomes seizedwith epilepsy; so terrible is the thought upon him that one
night he was found in the chapel with the picture unfinished, and in the
morning he lay dead, and the face looks out there from the canvas. Do you not
see how, by the very presence ofthis greatthought of the death of Jesus, man
is laid under a tremendous spell? Should I speak of music? You know Bach's
Passionmusic, decidedly the grandestthing that Bachhimself ever wrote. I
shall never forget hearing Handel's "Messiah" forthe first time. And to-day is
not the same fact true that the one thing that, exercisesa spell over humanity
in connectionwith our preaching is this tasting death for every man? For a
little seasonit may be that the greattruth of the Atonement has been receding
from public view. But I am perfectly sure that in the heart of men there is
nothing that it finds so effective about this gospelas this truth of tasting death
for every man. It must come to the front, we shall see a further coronationof
Jesus as the world recognisesthat He tasted death for every man. The ground
of His kingship is His tasting of death.
(A. Cave, D. D.)
Christ tasting death
W. Jones, D. D.Thus the tasting of death was no dishonour, but an honour to
Christ. By it He brought many to eternallife: for all that He is above the
angels and all other creatures whatsoever. Christhath tasted of death before
us, therefore let not us that be Christians be too much afraid of death. There
is a potion brought to a sick patient which the eye loathes and the mouth
distastes. The poor sick man is loath to drink of it, the physician takes it into
his hand, tastes of it before his eyes;by that he is encouragedto receive it; so
is it with us, death is a sour cup which nature abhorreth; we are all unwilling
naturally to drink of it; but for so much as Christ our loving and heavenly
Physicianhath tasted of it beforehand, let us not be afraid of it. The godliest
men in the world cannot but in some measure fear death; Christ fearedit: yet
let this be as sugarto sweetenthis bitter cup to us; Christ tasted of it and
overcame it, so shall we do by His virtue and power. Oh, the wonderful and
unspeakable love of Christ I as if a company of traitors were going to the
scaffoldto be executed; the king's son should step forth to die for them; what
an admirable thing were that! We, by nature, are enemies to God, traitors to
His majesty: the S,,n of the King of kings comes from heaven and dies for us.
Is not this to be admired of us all? scarce will any die for a righteous man; we
were unholy, unrighteous, defiled with the scabof sin in soul and body, yet the

Lord Jesus died for us. Life is sweet:who will die for his friend; but will any
die for his enemy?
(W. Jones, D. D.)
Christ died for every man
G. Lawson.1. It is said, He tastedof death; we need not play the critic in the
explication of the word "taste";for the plain meaning is, that He suffered
death; and by this is signified all His sufferings, which were many and bitter;
the principle and consummation whereofwas death, wherein they all ended,
and without which there had been no expiation.
2. He suffered death for every man; not that every man should absolutely
enjoy the ultimate benefit thereof, for every one doth not: yet every man, as a
sinner, hath some benefit by it, because the immediate effectof this death was,
that every man's sin in respectof this death is remissable, and every man
savable, because Christby it made God propitious and placable, in that He
had punished man's sin in Him, and laid on Him the iniquities of us all. And
the reasonwhy every man is not actually justified and saved, is not for want of
sufficient propitiation, but upon another account.
3. That which moved God to transfer the punishment due to our sins upon
Christ, His only begottenSon, was His grace and free love. The end, therefore,
why Christ was made lower than the angels was, that He being man and
mortal, yet holy and innocent without sin, might suffer death, that our sins
might be expiated, Divine justice satisfied, and a way made for mercy to save
us.
(G. Lawson.)
The Saviour tasting death for sinner
J. N. Norton, D. D.Tasting death!.A bitter draught indeed! When Socrates,
the wise and good, dwelling amidst the immoralities of Athens, was cruelly
condemned to death, he conversedcheerfully with his weeping friends; during
the gray and misty hours of morn, concerning the glorious hopes which even
he, a poor benighted pagan, had of the soul's long life, and of coming bliss;
and then, with untrembling hand, he took the cup of poisonous hemlock, and
drank, and died. The figurative language ofthe text is borrowedfrom this
common mode of executionin an, lent times. But we read of another who
"tasteddeath," in comparisonwith whose simple grandeur, Socrates,and all
the philosophers and sageswho have ever lived, must hide their diminished
heads — the incarnate Sonof God, who, out of pity and compassionfor our
condemned and suffering race, of His own free-will and goodness,"tasted

death for every man." How can any sinner remain unmoved at the
contemplation of such a spectacle?"Who tasteddeath for every man!" Will
all, then, be saved? A benevolent individual builds a large and comfortable
abode for the poor, and the sick, and the helpless, and freely invites everybody
who needs to go in at the open gate. The offer of assistanceis quite as
extensive as the wants of the suffering. But, suppose that some should be too
proud to acceptofthis free mercy, and others should express a doubt whether
the physician in the hospital could do any more than might be accomplished
by their own silly quackeries athome, will the benefits of the goodman's
liberality be enjoyed by the proud and the unbelieving? No more will those be
savedwho do not go to Christ, even though He has died for all. We must love
Him for His goodness,and gladly obey His commandments, if we hope for a
share in the blessings purchasedby His precious death.
(J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Christ's title to kingship
Principal Cave.The supreme thought in these chapters is the superiority of
Jesus Christ. Jesus the Mediator is greaterthan any angelof the old covenant
who had actedas mediator, The angels serve, and serve Jesus. Theyworship,
and worship Jesus Jesus is the King of the new age;the angels are only
ministering servants in the age.
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE WORDS " THEY TASTED DEATHFOR
EVERY MAN"? The more we think of the Atonement, the more we see its
greatness.We are only spelling out the A B C of its meaning. But the thinking
man finds out, in every regionbesides that of religion, his incapacity of
thought. Yet incapacity is no plea or reasonfor giving up thinking. Though
the oceanbe infinite in depth, yet I will dredge. One thought of Christ stands
out prominently in this generation:that He is to us a new life. There may be a
danger of accentuating this thought to the exclusionof the "tasting of death."
1. Deathis the penalty of human sin.
2. The penalty of death is pronounced by the pre-existent Christ. The whole
Trinity assure us that death is the penalty of sin.
3. Deathis more than decease — more than shuffling off this mortal coil. The
Biblical idea of death is an evolution of penalty. It begins when the soul turns
awayfrom God; it intensifies as the tragic life unfolds, till we come to decease;
then it follows on where we cannot interpret — face to face with the second
death.

4. The real cause of the penalty — the centre of it — is the withdrawal from
man of the Spirit of God. Man choosesto sin, and He whose ermine must not
be sullied removes far from him. This eternal withdrawal of God is the second
death. In the light of this truth think of Jesus'death. He tasted to the full the
bitterness of the penalty — withdrawal of His Father's face. For a time there
is a chasm betweenGod the Father and Godthe Son: "Why hast Thou
forsakenMe?"
II. THIS TASTING OF DEATH HAS BECOME CHRIST'S TITLE TO
KINGSHIP. "Crownedwith glory and honour." The coronationof Jesus is a
royal progress — not a clime nor a century but brings its tribute to Him
whose claim is that He tasteddeath for every man. Literature, music,
painting, all crown Him. It is a march of victory. If we would see His coming
in power before He comes in glory, this truth must be brought to the front —
that He tasted death — and thus we shall see Him crownedwith glory and
honour. In these days we see the coronationof Jesus going on apace. I rejoice
in the spirit of the times. What if we lose our hold on a creedhere and there,
we need neither star nor moon when the Sun is up. Betteranything than
stagnation; and on all sides this question raises itself: "What think ye of
Christ?" Let us rejoice that Godis calling out from this age a new reverence
for Jesus, andby and by we shall hear from it the verdict, "I find no fault in
this man," until it advances to "My Lord and my God."
(Principal Cave.)
Extent of the Atonement
D. Thamas, D. D.It is not like a banquet, accommodatedto the tastes and
wants of so many and no more. Like a masterpiece ofmusic, its virtues are
independent of numbers.
(D. Thamas, D. D.)
Human thought contracted
Proctor's Gems of Thought.We are limited by our creeds;like a beetle
crawling on a cabbage leafand thinking it is the whole world.
(Proctor's Gems of Thought.)
Extent of the Atonement
Dr. T. W. Jenkyn.The apostles understoodtheir commissions to be general
and indiscriminate for "every creature":so they receivedit from Him who
laid the foundation of such an extensive ministration by tasting death for
every man. Accordingly, they went forth on their commission, to preach the
gospelto "allthe world." They did not square their message by any human

system of theology, nor measure their language to the lines of Procrustean
creeds. Theyemployed a dialectthat traverses the length and breadth of the
world. They did not tremble for such an unreserved exhibition of the ark and
the mercy-seat. Theycould not bring themselves to stint the remedy which
was prepared and intended to restore a dying world; nor would they cramp
the bow which God had lighted up in the storm that threatenedall mankind.
(Dr. T. W. Jenkyn.)
God's abundant grace
Proctor's Gems of Thought.So 1 Timothy 1:14: The grace of God not simply
abundant, but "exceedinglyabundant." If sin flowed like a bottomless pit, an
abyss never satisfied, then grace — a strongerand a fuller current, exceeding
it in measure — prevailing like the waters ofthe Flooduntil the very tops of
the highestmountains were covered;it fills a greatersea than the sea of
iniquity; more than enough to pardon the sins of the world or of other worlds.
This is the salvationwhich God's free grace hath brought unto all men.
(Proctor's Gems of Thought.)
The sufferings of Christ should inspire Christians with fortitudeHe "endured
the Cross,"it is written, "despising the shame";and canwe do less? Nay, can
we complain in the midst of our troubles? When Guatimozin, the Mexican
emperor, was tortured by the Spaniards, he bore the torment with more than
human fortitude. One of his fellow-sufferers of weakerconstitutionturned his
eyes upon the prince and uttered a cry of anguish. "Thinkestthou," said
Guatimozin, "that I am laid upon a bed of roses?" "Silencedby this reproof,"
says the historian, "the sufferer stifled his complaints, and expired in an actof
obedience to his sovereign."
The universality of the Atonement
D. Thomas, D. D."He tasted death for every man." "He gave Himself a
ransom for all." "He is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world." That
all are not savedis no objection. It is suggestedby a popular expositor that in
material nature much goodness seems wasted. Rainand dew descendupon
flinty rocks and sterile sands;floods of geniallight come tiding down every
morning from the sun on scenes where no human foot has trod; flowers bloom
in beauty and emit their fragrance, trees rise in majesty and throw awaytheir
clustering fruit, on spots where as yet there has never been a man. Wealth
sufficient to enrich whole nations is buried beneath the mountains and the
seas, while millions are in want. Medicine for half the ills of life is shut up in
minerals and plants, whole generations die without knowing of the remedy
which nature has provided. It is no objection, therefore, to the universality of

the Atonement, that all are not benefited by it. Its benefits one day will be
universally enjoyed. There are men coming after us who shall live in those
solitary wastes,enjoythe beauty and the light which now seemwasted,
appropriate the fruits, the wealth, and the medicine, which for ages have been
of no avail. It will be even so with the death of Christ. There ,re men coming
after us that shall participate of the blessings ofthat Atonement, which
generations have either ignorantly rejectedor wickedlydespised.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
EXPOSITORY(ENGLISHBIBLE)
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(9)But we see Jesus . . .—Rather,
But we see Him who has been made a little lower than angels, Jesus, because
of the suffering of death crownedwith glory and honour. There is One in
whom the divine purpose is fulfilled in all its parts. He was made a little (the
rendering of the margin, “a little while,” is much less probable) lowerthan
angels, and He is crownedwith glory. In one point we note an apparent
departure from the sense of the Psalm, since words (“a little lower”)which
there denote dignity here denote humiliation. This difference is not essential;
in eachcase it is the position of man that is signified, and our Lord’s
assumption of human nature must in any case be spokenof as a descentto a
lowersphere. There is peculiar fitness in the use of the human name, Jesus,
for Him in whom the Psalmist’s words concerning man are literally fulfilled.
It is noteworthy that we do not read, “We see all things put in subjection unto
Jesus”—this wouldconflict with the truth stated in Hebrews 10:13 : other
words of the Psalm are substituted, which do not imply that the complete
actualsubjection is already accomplished. This exaltation of One is not a
substitute for, but involves (Romans 8:17; Romans 8:29, et al.), and renders
possible, the exaltation of the many. This is clearfrom the “not yet” of
Hebrews 2:8; and the same truth is brought out in a different form at the close
of this verse. In the midst of this application of the words of Scripture to
Jesus, the writer introduces his first reference to His death. The offence of the
cross (Galatians 5:11)was an ever-active force among Jews;this is presentto
the writer’s mind throughout the Epistle. The words thus suddenly brought in
here, reminding us that the exaltation of Christ was a reward for His
obedience unto death (another echo of St. Paul—Philippians 2:9-10; see also

Hebrews 12:2), prepare for the more detailed teaching of the following
verses—Hebrews2:10;Hebrews 2:14-15;Hebrews 2:17.
There is an apparent difficulty in the position of the last clause ofthe verse,
“that He should taste death for every man.” We cannot doubt that these
words depend on those which immediately precede; and yet how canit be said
that Jesus has been crownedwith glory in order that He may “taste deathfor
every man”? Almost all difficulty is removed if we considerthat (to use Dean
Alford’s words) “it is on the triumphant issue of His sufferings that their
efficacydepends.” But it is impossible for the Christian to separate, evenin
thought, the one from the other—the sufferings from the certain triumph. We
might, perhaps, saythat it is only by a misuse of human analogies thatwe
separate them even in time: in the Gospelof St. John, at all events (if not in
this very Epistle—seeHebrews 2:14), we are taught that in His crucifixion
Jesus is exalted. This clause, then, brings us back to the thought of the glory
reservedfor man: through death the fulfilment of God’s purpose might seem
to be frustrated; through the death of Jesus on behalf of every man (1Peter
3:18) it is fulfilled. The outline presented here is filled up in later chapters;
there we shall read that man’s inheritance was forfeited through sin, and that
only through the virtue of a death which made atonement for sin is the
promise againmade sure (Hebrews 9:15-16;Hebrews 9:28). To “taste death”
is a familiar Hebraism. If it has any specialsignificance here, it would seem
less natural to see (with Chrysostom) a reference to the short duration of our
Saviour’s death, than to understand the words as pointing to the actualtaste
of all the bitterness of death. (Comp. Hebrews 6:4-5.)
One various reading it is impossible to pass by, though it is preservedin but
two of our Greek MSS., andthese of no early date. For“by the grace ofGod”
many (apparently most) copies ofthe Epistle that were known to Origen read
“apart from God.” This reading was followedby others of the Fathers, and
found its way into some manuscripts of early versions. The Nestorians gladly
acceptedwords which to them seemedto teach that in suffering the man Jesus
was apart from God. Origenand others understood the words differently, as
meaning, taste death for every being except God. (Comp. 1Corinthians 15:27.)
A reading so widely known, which in later times has been favoured by as
eminent a critic as Bengel, demanded notice, though it is almost certainly
incorrect. No interpretation which the words admit yields a probable sense;
on the other hand, the reference to “the grace ofGod” is full of significance.
(See Hebrews 2:4; Hebrews 2:10.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary2:5-9 Neither the state in which the
church is at present, nor its more completelyrestoredstate, when the prince
of this world shall be castout, and the kingdoms of the earth become the
kingdom of Christ, is left to the government of the angels:Christ will take to
him his greatpower, and will reign. And what is the moving cause of all the
kindness God shows to men in giving Christ for them and to them? it is the
grace ofGod. As a reward of Christ's humiliation in suffering death, he has
unlimited dominion over all things; thus this ancientscripture was fulfilled in
him. Thus God has done wonderful things for us in creationand providence,
but for these we have made the basestreturns.
Barnes'Notes on the BibleBut we see Jesus -We do not see that mankind has
the extended dominion of which the Psalmist speakselsewhere. Butwe see the
fulfillment of it in Jesus, who was crownedwith glory and honor, and who has
receiveda dominion that is superior to that of the angels. The point of this is,
not that he suffered, and not that he tasteddeath for every man; but that "on
accountof this," or "as a reward" for thus suffering, he was crownedwith
glory and honor, and that he thus fulfilled all that David Psalm 8:1-9 had said
of the dignity and honor of man. The object of the apostle is, to show that he
was "exalted," and in order to this he shows why it was - to wit, because he
had suffered death to redeem man; compare Philippians 2:8-9.
Who was made a little lowerthan the angels. - That is, as a man, or when on
earth. His assumedrank was inferior to that of the angels. He took upon
himself not the nature of angels Hebrews 2:16, but the nature of man. The
apostle is probably here answering some implied objections to the rank which
it was claimed that the Lord Jesus had, or which might be urged to the views
which he was defending. These objections were mainly two. First, that Jesus
was a man; and secondly, that he suffered and died. If that was the fact, it was
natural to ask how he could be superior to the angels? How could he have had
the rank which was claimed for him? This he answers by showing first, that
his condition as a man was "voluntarily" assumed- "he was made lower than
the angels;" and secondly, by showing that as a consequenceofhis sufferings
and death, he was immediately crownedwith glory and honor. This state of
humiliation became him in the great work which he had undertaken, and he
was immediately exalted to universal dominion, and as Mediator was raisedto
a rank far above the angels.
For the suffering of death. - Margin, "By." The meaning of the preposition
rendered here "for" (διὰ dia, here governing the accusative)is, "on account
of;" that is, Jesus on accountof the sufferings of death, or in virtue of that,
was crownedwith glory and honor. His crowning was the result of his

condescensionand sufferings;see notes, Philippians 2:8-9. It does not here
mean, as our translation would seemto imply, that he was made a little lower
than the angels in order to suffer death, but that as a reward for having
suffered death he was raisedup to the right hand of God.
Crownedwith glory and honor. - That is, at the right hand of God. He was
raisedup to heaven; Acts 2:33; Mark 16:19. The meaning is, that he was
crownedwith the highesthonor on accountof his sufferings; compare
Philippians 2:8-9; Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 5:7-9; Ephesians 1:20-23.
That he - . Or rather, "since he by the grace ofGod tasted death for every
man." The sense is, that after he had thus tasteddeath, and as a consequence
of it, he was thus exalted. The word rendered here "that" - ὅπως hopōs -
means usually and properly "that, so that, in order that, to the end that," etc.
But it may also mean "when, after that, after;" see the notes at Acts 3:19. This
is the interpretation which is given by Prof. Stuart (in loc.), and this
interpretation seems to be demanded by the connection. The general
interpretation of the passage has beendifferent. According to that, the sense
is, "We see Jesus, forthe suffering of death, crownedwith glory and honor, so
as that, by the grace ofGod, he might taste of death for every man;" see
Robinson's Lexicon on the word ὅπως hopōs, and Doddridge on the place. But
it is natural to ask when Jesus was thus crownedwith glory and honor? It was
not before the crucifixion - for he was then poor and despised. The connection
seems to require us to understand this of the glory to which he was exaltedin
heaven, and this was after his death, and could not be in order that he might
taste of death. I am disposed, therefore, to regardthis as teaching that the
Lord Jesus was exaltedto heaven in virtue of the atonement which he had
made, and this accords with Philippians 2:8-9, and Hebrews 12:2. It accords
both with "the fact" in the case, andwith the designof the apostle in the
argument before us.
By the grace ofGod - By the favor of God, or by his benevolentpurpose
toward people. It was not by any claim which man had, but was by his special
favor.
Should taste death - Should die; or should experience death; see Matthew
16:28. Deathseems to be representedas something bitter and unpalatable -
something unpleasant - as an objectmay be to the taste. Or the language may
be taken from a cup - since to experience calamityand sorrow is often
representedas drinking a cup of woes;Psalm11:6; Psalm 73:10;Psalm 75:8;
Isaiah51:17; Matthew 20:22; Matthew 26:39.

For every man - Forall - Ὑπὲρ παντὸς Huper pantos - for eachand all -
whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, high or low, elector non-elect. How
could words affirm more clearly that the atonement made by the Lord Jesus
was unlimited in its nature and design? How can we express that idea in more
clearor intelligible language? Thatthis refers to the atonementis evident - for
it says that he "tasteddeath" for them. The friends of the doctrine of general
atonement do not desire any other than Scripture language in which to
express their belief. It expresses itexactly - without any need of modification
or explanation. The advocates ofthe doctrine of limited atonement cannot
thus use Scripture language to express their belief. They cannot incorporate it
with their creeds that the Lord Jesus "tasteddeathfor every man." They are
compelled to modify it, to limit it, to explain it, in order to prevent error and
misconception. But that system cannotbe true which requires people to shape
and modify the plain language of the Bible in order to keeppeople from error!
compare the notes at 2 Corinthians 5:14, where this point is consideredat
length.
(With the author's views on the doctrine of atonement we accordin the main;
yet are here tempted to ask if the advocatesofuniversal atonementwould not
be under the like necessity, ofexplaining, modifying, or "extending," such
passagesas limit, or seemto limit, the atonement of Christ; and if in framing a
creed, the advantage would not lie about equal on either side? Neither party
would be contentedto set down in it those scriptures which seemedleast
favorable to themselves without note or explanation. If this remark appears
unjust, in as much as the universalist could admit into his creed, that "Christ
laid down his life for the sheep," though at the same time he believed further,
that he laid it down not for them only, nay, not for them in any specialsense
"more than for others;" let it be observedthat the limitation could just as well
admit into his, that "Christ tasteddeath for every man," or for all people,
(Υπερ παντος Huper pantos)though he might believe further, not for all
specially, not for all efficaciously, orwith Prof. Stuart on the place, not for all
universally, but "for all without distinction" that is, both Jew and Gentile. It
is indeed difficult to say on which side explanation would be most needed.
In the case ofthe limited passage it would require to be observedfirst, that the
atonement extended further than it intimated, and besides, that there was no
specialreference to the parties specified, the sheep, namely. There would be
required, in truth, both extensionand limitation, that is, if a creedwere to be
made, or a full view of opinion given. They seemto come nearestthe truth on
this subject, who deny neither the generalnor specialaspectofthe atonement.
On the one hand there is a large class of "universalpassages,"which cannot

be satisfactorilyexplained on any other principle than what regards the
atonement as a greatremedial plan, that rendered it consistentwith the divine
honor, to extend mercy to guilty people at large, and which would have been
equally requisite had there been an intention to save one, or millions; numbers
indeed not forming any part of the question. On the other hand, there is a
large class of"special" texts, which cannotbe explained without admitting,
that while this atonementhas reference to all, "yet God in providing it had a
specialdesignto save his people by it;" see the whole subject fully discussed,
on the author's note referred to above, and in the supplementary note, on the
same passages,whichcontains a digest of the more recentcontroversies onthe
point.)
Hence, learn Hebrews 2:6-9, from the incarnation of the Sonof God, and his
exaltation to heaven, what an honor has been conferredon human nature.
When we look on the weaknessand sinfulness of our race, we may well ask,
what is man that God should honor him or regard him? He is the creature of
a day. He is feeble and dying. He is lostand degraded. Compared with the
universe at large, he is a speck, anatom. He has done nothing to deserve the
divine favor or notice, and when we look at the race at large we cando it only
with sentiments of the deepesthumiliation and mortification. But when we
lookerhuman nature in the personof the Lord Jesus, we see it honored there
to a degree that is commensurate with all our desires, and that fills us with
wonder. We feel that it is an honor to human nature - that it has done much to
elevate man - when we look on such a man as Howard or Washington. But
how much more has that nature been honored in the person of the Lord
Jesus!
(1) what an honor to us it was that he should take our nature into intimate
union with himself - passing by the angelic hosts, and becoming a man!
(2) what an honor it was that human nature there was so pure and holy; that
"man" - everywhere else so degradedand vile - "could" be seento be noble,
and pure, and godlike!
(3) what an honor it was that the divinity should speak to people in connection
with human nature, and perform such wonderful works - that the pure
precepts of religion should come forth from human lips - the greatdoctrines
of eternal life be uttered by "a man," and that from human hands should go
forth power to heal the sick and to raise the dead!
continued...
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary9. But—We see not man as yet
exercising lordship over all things, "but rather, Him who was made a little

lowerthan the angels (compare Lu 22:43), we behold (by faith: a different
Greek verb from that for 'we see,'Heb 2:8, which expresses the impression
which our eyes passivelyreceive from objects around us; whereas, 'we
behold,' or 'look at,' implies the direction and intention of one deliberately
regarding something which he tries to see:so Heb 3:19; 10:25, Greek),
namely, Jesus, on accountof His suffering of death, crowned," &c. He is
already crowned, though unseen by us, save by faith; hereafterall things shall
be subjected to Him visibly and fully. The ground of His exaltation is "on
accoumtof His having suffered death" (Heb 2:10; Php 2:8, 9).
that he by the grace of God—(Tit2:11; 3:4). The reading of Origen, "That He
without God" (laying aside His Divinity; or, for every being save God: or
perhaps alluding to His having been temporarily "forsaken," as the Sin-
bearer, by the Father on the cross), is not supported by the manuscripts. The
"that," &c., is connectedwith "crownedwith glory," &c., thus: His exaltation
after sufferings is the perfecting or consummation of His work (Heb 2:10) for
us: without it His death would have been ineffectual; with it, and from it,
flows the result that His tasting of death is available for (in behalf of, for the
goodof) every man. He is crownedas the Head in heaven of our common
humanity, presenting His blood as the all-prevailing plea for us. This
coronationabove makes His death applicable for every individual man
(observe the singular; not merely "for all men"), Heb 4:14; 9:24; 1Jo 2:2.
"Taste death" implies His personalexperimental undergoing of death: death
of the body, and death (spiritually) of the soul, in His being forsakenof the
Father. "As a physician first tastes his medicines to encourage his sick patient
to take them, so Christ, when all men feareddeath, in order to persuade them
to be bold in meeting it, tasted it Himself, though He had no need"
[Chrysostom]. (Heb 2:14, 15).
Matthew Poole's CommentaryButwe see Jesus, who was made a little lower
than the angels:this secondapplication of the psalmist’s words demonstrates
Jesus, the gospelProphet, to be the man or Adam intended by the Spirit
there; and his humiliation and exaltation to be the matter assertedofhim: see
Hebrews 2:7.
For the suffering of death, crownedwith glory and honour: the reasonor end
of his diminution, in respectofangels, for a little while, and of the necessityof
his being man, was, that he might be crucified and die, Philippians 2:7-11, and
thereby merit for himself a crown of honour and glory. This was given him for
his giving himself to be a sacrifice for sin, and by his own blood to expiate it.

That he by the grace of God; the principle determining, which was God’s
goodpleasure;he alone, out of his free love and favour to sinners, ordered
this, as John 3:16 1Jo 4:9. Therefore the Hebrews had no reasonof being
offended with him as they were, 1 Corinthians 1:23.
Should taste death; a metaphor to express to die as a sacrifice, making
satisfactionto Divine justice, and expiating sins, Isaiah 53:10. All his
sufferings in body and soul, which were many and bitter, are here intended,
and their completion by death, Matthew 26:39,42, intimating by his taste of
this deadly cup, his sipping of it, but not having swallowedit: and it is a
metaphor allusive to the Greciancustoms, who put men to death by giving
them a cup of poison, as the Athenians executedSocrates.
For every man; to render sin remissible to all persons, and them salvable, God
punishing man’s sin in him, and laying on him the iniquities of us all, Isaiah
53:4-6 1Jo 2:2; and so God became propitious and pleasable to all; and if all
are not savedby it, it is because they do not repent and believe in him, 2
Corinthians 5:19-21:compare John 10:15. This was evident to and well
known by these Hebrews, as if they saw it, the work, concomitants, and effects
of it demonstrating it. And this now in the gospelis evident to faith: it was so
certainly visible and evidently true, as not to be denied but by infidels.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleBut we see Jesus,....Notwith bodily eyes,
but with the eyes of the mind, and understanding; that he is Jesus, as the
Syriac version reads; and that he is designedin the above words; and that he
has all things made subjectunto him; and that he was humbled, and now
exalted, as follows:
who was made a little lowerthan the angels;in his state of humiliation; See
Gill on Hebrews 2:7.
for the suffering of death: this clause may be consideredeither as connected
with the preceding;and then the sense is, that Jesus became lowerthan the
angels, by, or through suffering death; in that respecthe was lowerthan they,
who die not; this proved him to be in a condition below them, and showedhow
pertinent the above words were to him, and how they were fulfilled in him: or
with the following;and then the meaning is, that because Jesus suffereddeath
in the room and steadof his people;humbled himself, and became obedient to
death, even the death of the cross, whenhe was very low indeed, therefore he
is
crownedwith glory and honour; see Philippians 2:8 and See Gill on Hebrews
2:7.

that he by the grace of Godshould taste death for every man; that is, Christ
was made a little lowerthan the angels by becoming man, and assuming a
body frail and mortal, that he might die for his church and people:to "taste
death", is a Jewishphrase, often to be met with in Rabbinical writings; See
Gill on Matthew 16:28 and signifies the truth and reality of his death, and the
experience he had of the bitterness of it, it being attended with the wrath of
God, and curse of the law; though he continued under it but for a little while,
it was but a taste;and it includes all kinds of death, he tastedof the death of
afflictions, being a man of sorrows allhis days, and a corporealdeath, and
what was equivalent to an eternal one; and so some think the words will bear
to be rendered, "that he by the grace ofGod might taste of every death";
which rendering of the words, if it could be established, as it is agreeable to
the context, and to the analogyof faith, would remove all pretence of an
argument from this place, in favour of the universal scheme:what moved God
to make him lower than the angels, and deliver him up to death, was not any
angertowards him, any disregardto him, or because he deservedit, but his
"grace", free favour, and love to men; this moved him to provide him as a
ransom; to preordain him to be the Lamb slain; to send him in the fulness of
time, and give him up to justice and death: the Syriac versionreads, "for God
himself through his own grace tasteddeath for all"; Christ died, not merely as
an example, or barely for the goodof men, but as a surety, in their room and
stead, and that not for every individual of mankind; for there are some he
knows not; for some he does not pray; and there are some who will not be
saved: the word "man" is not in the original text, it is only , which may be
takeneither collectively, and be rendered "forthe whole";that is, the whole
body, the church for whom Christ gave himself, and is the Saviour of; or
distributively, and be translated, "foreveryone";for everyone of the sons God
brings to glory, Hebrews 2:10 for everyone of the "brethren", whom Christ
sanctifies, and he is not ashamedto own, and to whom he declares the name of
God, Hebrews 2:11 for everyone of the members of the "church", in the midst
of which he sung praise, Hebrews 2:12 for every one of the "children" God
has given him, and for whose sakehe took part of flesh and blood, Hebrews
2:13 and for everyone of the "seed" ofAbraham, in a spiritual sense, whose
nature he assumed, Hebrews 2:16.
Geneva Study Bible{6} But we {l} see Jesus, who was made a little {m} lower
than the angels {7} for the {n} suffering of death, crownedwith glory and
honour; that he by the grace of God should {o} taste death for {8} every man.

(6) The answer:this is already fulfilled in Jesus Christ our head, who was
temporarily for our sakes inferiorto the angels, being made man: but now is
advancedinto most high glory.
(l) By his virtue and power which appears revealedin the Church.
(m) Who abasedhimself for a time, and took the position of a servant.
(7) He shows the cause ofthis subjection, that is, to taste death for our sakes,
that in so doing the part of a redeemer, he might not only be our Prophet and
King, but also our High Priest.
(n) That he might die.
(o) Feeldeath.
(8) In this exists the force of the argument: for we could not eventually be
glorified with him, unless he was abasedfor us, even for all the elect. By this
event the apostle comes to the other part of the declarationof Christ's person,
in which he proved him to be God and also man.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-9.htm"Hebrews2:9.
Proofthat, notwithstanding the circumstances justmentioned, the matter
itself which has been assertedis perfectly true. Certainly we do not, at the
present moment, as yet see all things made subject to Christ, the Sonof man;
but we do see Him already crownedwith glory and honour, in that after
suffering and dying He has been exaltedto the right hand of the Father. From
the reality of the one, however, which we see, follows ofnecessitythe reality of
the other, which we do not yet see. Forif the word of Scripture: δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ
ἐστεφάνωσας αὐτόν, has already been fulfilled in His case, there canbe no
kind of doubt but in like manner also the further word of Scripture: πάντα
ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶνποδῶν αὐτοῦ, inseparably connectedas it is with the
former, has already attained its realization in Him.
The words of Hebrews 2:9 have undergone a strange misinterpretation on the
part of Hofmann (Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 45 ff. 2 Aufl.). As Hofmann with regard
to Hebrews 2:7 already denies that the two members of the sentence in that
verse:ἠλάττωσας αὐτὸνβραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους and δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ
ἐστεφάνωσας αὐτόν, form in the mind of the writer an opposition to each
other, so just as little is the writer in Hebrews 2:9 supposed to have had
present to his mind in connectionwith τὸν βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους
ἠλαττωμένονthe humiliation of Christ, and with δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ
ἐστεφανωμένονthe exaltationof Christ. Hebrews 2:9 is thought rather to

refer exclusively to the Jesus “living in the flesh,” and the connectionis thus
explained: “Farfrom its being the case that we see all things subjected to man,
He, on the contrary, of whom that which the psalm speaks ofman holds good
in full truth, Jesus namely, stands before our eyes in a position of divine
appointment, as such demanded by the existing calamity of death, which,
according to Hebrews 2:14, makes the devil a ruler and us bondsmen.” Forby
βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους ἠλαττωμένος there is reference made, in the opinion
of Hofmann, to the person of man, of which the psalm is treating, with regard
to the dignity belonging thereto as conferredby God,—inasmuchas βραχύ τι
is to be takenof degree,—butby τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου is indicated the
misfortune consisting in death itself, and not his suffering of death; and δόξα
καὶ τιμή finally expresses,according to Hebrews 3:3, Hebrews 5:4-5, the
glorious characterof his position by virtue of his vocation. The sense of
Hebrews 2:9, then, is supposed to be: “What He, in whom the wealth of
human nature has appearedin full truth, denotes and represents on the part
of God,—forthe former is meant by τιμή, the latter by δόξα,—thatHe
denotes and represents, forthe reasonthat mankind is obnoxious to the
suffering of death, and to the end that He might taste a death which should
redound unto goodfor every one!” See, on the other hand, the remarks of
Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 333 ff., note.
τὸν βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους ἠλαττω μένονis the object, and δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ
ἐστεφανωμένονthe predicate to βλέπομεν, while Ἰησοῦν is the appositional
nearer definition of the objectbrought in only at the close. The sense thus is:
“But we do indeed see the one for a time abasedbelow the angels, namely
Jesus, crownedwith glory and honour.” Wrongly others: “As the one for a
time abasedbelow the angels do we recognise Jesus,who is crownedwith
glory and honour.” For, in order to express this thought, Ἰησοῦν τὸν …
ἐστεφανωμένονmust have been placed. Wrongly likewise Ebrard, with whom
Delitzschagrees in substance, who takes Ἰησοῦνas object, ἠλαττωμένονas
adjectivalattribute to Ἰησοῦν, and ἐστεφανωμένονas predicate to the object.
The sense then is: “mankind is not yet exalted; but Jesus, who was indeed
abasedfor a while below the angels, we see alreadycrownedwith glory and
honour.” This construction, which at any rate rests upon the false supposition
that the subject of discourse, Hebrews 2:6-8, is not already Christ, the Sonof
man, but only man in general, and that the author of the epistle had regarded
as fully identical the two utterances of the psalm: δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφάνωσας
αὐτόν, and πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ, wouldonly be
permissible in the case thatἸησοῦν δέ, τὸν βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους
ἠλαττωμένον, βλέπομενκ.τ.λ., or τὸν δὲ βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους ἠλαττωμένον

Ἰησοῦν βλέπομεν κ.τ.λ., had been written. By the position of the Ἰησοῦν after
βλέπομεν it becomes impossible;since in consequencethereofἸησοῦνappears
as entirely unaccentuated, consequentlycan be regardedonly as a
supplementary addition by way of elucidationwith regard to the question who
is to be understood by the ὁ βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους ἠλαττωμένος. Ἰησοῦν
might even have been entirely left out without detriment to the sense and
intelligibility of that which the author would imply; it is nevertheless inserted,
in order, by the express mention of His name, to cut off every kind of doubt
upon the point that it is no other than Christ, the historic Redeemer, of whom
the citationadduced, Hebrews 2:6-8, is treating.
βλέπομεν] we see, perceive;namely, with the eyes of the mind; comp. Hebrews
3:19, al. For it is openly testified that Christ rose from the dead, and ascended
to the right hand of the Fatherin heaven; and Christians feel that He is
reigning in power and glory by means of the Holy Spirit, which He has
conferredupon them.
διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου]on accountof His suffering of death, belongs not
to βραχύ τι παρʼ ἀγγέλους ἠλαττωμένον(Origen, in Joann. t. ii. c. 6;
Augustine, contra Maximin. Hebrews 3:2; Hebrews 3:5; Chrysostom,
Theodoret, Oecumenius, Beza, Schlichting, Cornelius a Lapide, Cameron,
Calov, Limborch, Semler, al.), but to δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφανωμένον(Luther,
Calvin, Estius, Grotius, Bengel, Wetstein, Böhme, Bleek, Tholuck, de Wette,
Ebrard, Bisping, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 357;Alford,
Maier, Moll, Kurtz, Ewald, and many others). Only this mode of referring the
clause has the merit of naturalness from the position of the words;only this is
grammatically and logicallyjustified. For not only with this construction does
διά with the accusative retainits only possible signification, but the thought
likewise finds its confirmation in the sequel(διὰ παθημάτωντελειῶσαι,
Hebrews 2:10), and accords with the view of Paul, Php 2:9, according to
which the exaltationof Christ to the right hand of the Father was the
consequence anddivine recompense of the voluntary abasementendured even
to the death of the cross. Supposing the connectionto be with that which
precedes, διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου must contain a later added nearer
definition to ἠλαττωμένον;but a secondsupplementary nearerdefinition,
seeing that Ἰησοῦν already occupies sucha position, would be extremely
improbable, when we considerthe carefulness with regardto style which
prevails in this epistle; it would not, like Ἰησοῦν, have a purpose to serve, but
be merely an instance of linguistic negligence suchas ought not to be readily
laid to the charge ofour author. Moreover, διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου,

referred to that which precedes, does not even admit of any satisfactory
explanation. For, as thus combined, it is interpreted either: humbled by
reasonof the suffering of death, i.e. by suffering death, or: humbled for the
sake ofthe suffering of death, i.e. in order to be able to undertake it. But in
the latter case the choice of the preposition διά would be an exceedinglyill-
judged one, since we must, at any rate, have expectedεἰς τὸ πάσχειν τὸν
θάνατον, or something similar. In the former case, onthe other hand, διά
must have been combined with the genitive instead of the accusative, quite
apart from the considerationthat the author can hardly be supposedto limit
the humiliation of Christ to the moment of His death, but rather (comp.
Hebrews 2:14), like Paul, to comprehend in generalthe whole period of His
life in the flesh.
ὅπως χάριτι θεοῦ ὑπὲρ παντὸς γεύσηται θανάτου]that He by the grace ofGod
might taste death for every one, does not depend upon δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ
ἐστεφανωμένον. Forthe enduring of death was certainly not something which
was to take place only after the exaltation, but already preceded this. The
contortedinterpretations, however:so that He died for all (Erasmus,
Paraphr., Tena, Ribera, Morus, Valckenaer, Kuinoel), or: in order that He
may have suffered death for all (Ebrard), or: postquam mortem gustavit
(Schleusner), are grammaticallyimpossible. But since a connecting of the final
clause with ἠλαττωμένον(Akersloot, Bengel, Böhme, Bisping)is, considering
the grammaticalconstructionof Hebrews 2:9, quite inconceivable, ὅπως κ.τ.λ.
can be only a further, but pregnant, exponent of the preceding τὸ πάθημα τοῦ
θανάτου:on accountof His suffering of death, namely, in order that He might,
etc.
χάριτι θεοῦ] for the grace and love of God is the supreme cause of the
redeeming death of Christ (comp. Romans 5:8; Galatians 2:21).
ὑπέρ] on behalf of for the wealof.
παντός] is not neuter, in such wise that the declarationshould apply to the
whole creation, including the angels (Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact;
comp. Origen, in Joann. t. i. c. 40);[45] for this thought comes into collision
with Hebrews 2:16, and the expressionthereofwould be incorrect, since we
must expect in that case ὙΠῈΡ ΠΆΣΗς Τῆς ΚΤΊΣΕΩς, or at leastὙΠῈΡ
ΤΟῦ ΠΑΝΤΌς. ΠΑΝΤΌς is masculine, and has reference only to mankind.
The singular, however, is placed, not the plural πάντων, in order distinctly to
bring out the thought that Christ died on behalf of eachsingle individual

among men (namely, who will appropriate the salvation offeredhim), not
merely for mankind as a totality, as a compactcorporation. [Piscatorand
Owenunderstand: eachand every one, sc. of the πολλοὶ υἱοί mentioned
Hebrews 2:10. Cf. Acts 20:28.]
ΓΕΎΕΣΘΑΙΘΑΝΆΤΟΥ] represents the experiencing of death under the
figure of a tasting of the same. Comp. Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27;
John 8:52. The formula corresponds to the rabbinical ‫ט‬ ְ‫ע‬ ַ‫ם‬ ‫ו‬̇‫ת‬ ָ‫ה‬ (see
Schoettgenand Wetsteinon Matthew 16:28), and has its manifold analogiesin
the Greek turns: ΓΕΎΕΣΘΑΙ ΜΌΧΘΩΝ (Soph. Trachin. 1101), κακῶν
(Eurip. Hec. 379;Luc. Nigr. 28), πένθους πικροῦ (Eurip. Alcest. 1069),
ΠΌΝΩΝ (Pindar, Nem. 6:41), ὀϊστοῦ (Homer, Odyss. xxi. 98), Τῆς ἈΡΧῆς,
Τῆς ἘΛΕΥΘΕΡΊΗς (Herod. iv. 147, Hebrews 6:5), etc. The formula is only a
more significant expressionfor the ordinary ἀποθνήσκειν. Neitherthe notion
of the brief duration of Christ’s death (Chrysostom, Oecumenius,
Theophylact, Primasius, Clarius, Camerarius, Braun, Peirce, Cramer, Ch. F.
Schmid), nor along with this the notion of the reality of that death (Beza,
Bengel), nor, finally, the notion of the bitterness of the death sufferings
(Calov, Delitzsch, Maier, Kurtz), lies in the expression.
[45] Ebrard, too, finds the thought expressedin ὑπὲρ παντός: “that Christ by
His death has reconciledabsolutelyall things, heaven and earth;” but in
connectiontherewith inconsistently takes παντός as a masculine.
REMARK.
In connectionwith the explanation of the reading χωρὶς θεοῦ (see the critical
remarks)comes forth the main diversity, that these words were either taken
as closelyconjoinedwith ὑπὲρ παντός, or regarded in themselves as an
independent nearer defining of the verb. The former mode of explanation is
adopted by Origen, Theodoret, Ebrard, Ewald:“in order that He might suffer
death for all beings, with the exceptionof Godalone;” further Bengel, and
Chr. F. Schmid: “in order that, with a view to purchasing or subjecting all
things except God, He might suffer death.” But againstboth acceptations is
the factthat παντός cannotbe neuter (see above), againstthe latter, moreover,
in particular the fact that the notion: “in order to purchase to himself,”
cannot possibly be expressedby the mere ὑπὲρ παντός. As an independent
addition χωρὶς θεοῦ is taken by Theodorus Mopsuestenus, Ambrose,
Fulgentius, the Nestorians, andP. Colomesius (Observatt. Sacr. p. 603):“that
He might taste death without God, i.e. without the participation of His

Godhead, with the mere sharing of His humanity in death.” But that such a
thought, in itself entirely alien as it is to the Biblical writers, could not have
been expressedby χωρὶς θεοῦ, is at once apparent. There must at leasthave
been written χωρὶς τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος.To this place further belongs Paulus,
with an appeal to Matthew 27:46 : “as without God, as one abandonedby
God, not delivered.” But the added “as,” by which alone the interpretation
becomes tolerable, is without grammaticaljustification the expositor’s own
additamentum.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges9. Butwe see]Rather, “But we look
upon.” The verb used is not ὁρῶμενvidemus as in the previous verse, but
βλέπομεν cernimus (as in Hebrews 3:19). In accordance withthe order of the
original the verse should be rendered “But we look upon Him who has been,
for a little while, made low in comparisonof angels—evenJesus—onaccount
of the suffering of death crowned, &c.”
who was made a little lowerthan the angels]This alludes to the temporal (“for
a little while”) and voluntary humiliation of the Incarnate Lord. See Php 2:7-
11. For a short time Christ was liable to agonyand death from which angels
are exempt; and even to the “intolerable indignity” of the grave.
for the suffering of death] Rather, “because ofthe suffering of death.” The
Via crucis was the appointed via lucis (comp. Hebrews 5:7-10, Hebrews 7:26,
Hebrews 9:12). This truth—that the sufferings of Christ were the willing path
of His perfectionment as the “Priestupon his throne” (Zechariah 6:13)—is
brought out more distinctly in this than in any other Epistle.
crownedwith glory and honour] Into the nature of this glory it was needless
and hardly possible to enter. “On His head were many crowns” (Revelation
19:12).
that] The words refer to the whole of the last clause. The universal efficacyof
His death resulted from the double fact of His humiliation and glorification.
He was made a little lower than the angels, He suffered death, He was
crownedwith glory and honour in order that His death might be efficacious
for the redemption of the world.
by the grace ofGod] The work of redemption resulted from the love of the
Father no less than from that of the Son (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 2
Corinthians 5:21). It is therefore a part of “the grace ofGod” (Romans 5:8;

Galatians 2:21; 2 Corinthians 6:1; Titus 2:2), and could only have been
carried into completionby the aid of that grace ofwhich Christ was full. The
Greek is χάριτι Θεοῦ, but there is a very interesting and very ancientvarious
reading χωρὶς Θεοῦ “apartfrom God.” St Jerome says that he only found this
reading “in some copies” (in quibusdam exemplaribus) whereas Origenhad
already said that ne only found the other reading “by the grace of God” in
some copies (ἐν τίσιν ἀντιγράφοις). At present howeverthe reading “apart
from God” is only found in the cursive manuscript 53 (a MS. of the 9th
century), and in the margin of 67. It is clearthat the reading was once more
common than is now the case, andit seems to have been a Westernand Syriac
reading which has gradually disappeared from the manuscripts. Theodore of
Mopsuestia calls the reading “by the grace ofGod” meaningless, and others
have stamped it as Monophysite (i.e. as implying that in Christ there was only
one nature). We have seenthat this is by no means the case, thoughthe other
reading may doubtless have fallen into disfavour from the use made of it by
the Nestorians to prove that Christ did not suffer in His divinity but only
“apart from God,” i.e. in His humanity (so too St Ambrose and Fulgentius).
But even if the reading be correct(and it is certainly more ancient than the
Nestoriancontroversy)the words may belong to their ownproper clause—
“that he may taste death for every being exceptGod;” the latter words being
added as in 1 Corinthians 15:27. But the reading is almost certainly spurious.
For (1) in the Nestoriansense it is unlike any other passageofScripture; (2) in
the other sense it is unnecessary(since it bears in no wayon the immediate
argument) and may have been originally added as a superfluous marginal
gloss by some pragmatic reader who remembered 1 Corinthians 15:27; or (3)
it may have originated from a confusionof letters on the original papyrus.
The incorporationof marginal glossesinto the text is a familiar phenomenon
in textual criticism. Such perhaps are 1 John 5:7; Acts 8:37; the latter part of
Romans 8:1; “without cause” in Matthew 5:22; “unworthily” in 1 Corinthians
11:29, &c.
should taste death] The word “taste” is not to be pressedas though it meant
that Christ “saw no corruption.” “To taste” does notmean merely “summis
labris delibare.” It is a common Semitic and metaphoric paraphrase for
death, derived from the notion of Death as an Angel who gives a cup to drink;
as in the Arabic poem Antar “Deathfed him with a cup of absinth by my
hand.” Comp. Matthew 16:28;John 8:52.
for] “onbehalf of” (ὑπὲρ), not “as a substitution for” (ἀντί).

for every man] Origen and others made this word neuter “for everything” or
“for every existence;” but this seems to be expresslyexcluded by Hebrews
2:16, and is not in accordance withthe analogyof John 1:29; John 3:16; 2
Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:2. It will be seenthat the writer deals freely with
the Psalm. The Psalmist views man in his presentcondition as being one
which involves both glory and humiliation: it is here applied as expressing
man’s present humiliation and his future glory, which is compared with
Christ’s temporal humiliation leading to his Eternal glory. It is the necessity
of this application which required the phrase “a little” to be understood not of
degree but of time. No doubt the writer has read into the words a pregnant
significance;but (1) he is only applying them by way of illustrating
acknowledgedtruths; and (2) he is doing so in accordancewith principles of
exegesiswhichwere universally concedednot only by Christians but even by
Jews.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK"/hebrews/2-9.htm"Hebrews2:9. Δὲ, but) The
antithesis is betweenthat in the psalm, which we do not yet see, and that
which we already perceive fulfilled in Jesus. But what do we perceive? We
perceive, as regards Jesus, who was made a little lowerthan the angels, that
He, on accountof the suffering of death, has been crowned with glory and
honour. In this paragraph, ἠλαττωμένον(διὰ—ἐστεφανωμένον)ὅπως, κ.τ.λ.,
is a Chiasmus, such as Paul has, Galatians 4:4-5 : and in the present clause,
διὰ, κ.τ.λ. (which clause requires no point before δόξῃ), that for (on account
of) which Jesus was crowned, namely, the suffering of death, is mentioned
according to the natural order of the subject, and not without emphasis,
before the actualcrowning. The apostle takes awayfrom the Jews the
offensive scandal(stumbling-block) of the cross:and so refutes the argument,
which might be drawn from the sufferings of Christ againstHis glory, and
that glory the source ofglory to us also, as that he even inverts it [turns it into
an argument for, instead of againstChrist]. He shows that the suffering of
death is so far from obstructing the glory and honour of the Messiah, that it
rather confirms them to us. Whence he infers, that the factof Jesus being
“made lowerthan the angels,” whichwas only for a little, did not refer to the
circumstance that He should continue under the powerof death, but that,
after He had once suffered death to the utmost, He should have everything
made subject to Him. It is Jesus to whom the humbling and crowning, as
describedin the psalm, apply. It is therefore the same Person, to whom also
the powerover all appropriately belongs, which (power) follows close after, in
the gradationof the psalm.—βραχύ τι, for some little time [a little]) Some
hours on the cross, days of suffering, years of toils, how little are they all,

when compared with eternity!—παρʼ ἀγγέλους, than the angels)who are
incapable of suffering and dying.—ἠλαττωμένον)made lower, less, a worm:
comp. Luke 22:43. The participle implies, that Jesus of Himself, and for His
own sake, might have entered upon glory without suffering; but the goodof
His brethren was likewise to be regarded.—Βλέπομεν, we perceive)The act of
looking, saith he, speaks (ofitself). The same word occurs, ch. Hebrews 3:19,
Hebrews 10:25. The fact and the issue agree with the faith of the previous
testimony; Hebrews 2:6, at the beginning.—τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου, the
suffering of death) The suffering of death is the main feature [in His
sufferings, and so is put for all the rest]: ch. Hebrews 5:7.—δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ,
with glory and honour) becoming the Son of God. [Glory presupposes death;
honour, suffering.—V. g.]—ἐστεφανωμένον, crowned)afterdeath.—ὅπως,
that) This ought to be connectedwith being made lower, and therefore
denotes the end (the final cause).—χάριτι Θεοῦ, by the grace ofGod) Some
formerly read χωρὶς[16]Θεοῦ, exceptGod. Both readings give a goodsense;
let us look at each. The clause with χωρὶς, except, stands thus: Christ tasted
death for every one exceptGod. This sentence is to be explained by its
members. I.) Πάντος, as the πάντα, occurring five times in Hebrews 2:8;
Hebrews 2:10, is neuter, which is acknowledgedby Orig. Theod. Ambros.,
quoted in Estius; for in the masculine it is wont to be plural, ὑπὲρ πάντων, 2
Corinthians 5:15; 1 Timothy 2:6 : and the plural, πάντων and πᾶσι, is
generallymasc., sometimes neuter; but παντὸς, παντὶ, put without a
substantive or a participle, are always neut. [but Engl. Vers. “for every man”].
See above, at 2 Corinthians 11:6; Mark 9:49. The apostle shows the glory of
Christ from the eighth Psalm, and especiallyfrom the clause, Thouhast put
ralugnis eht fo sisahpme eht seilppus eh dna ;teef siH rednu ,gnihtyreve ,‫כל‬
number (He put everything), which is contained in that significant syllable ‫,לכ‬
and was omitted by the LXX. transl., when he says, and only in this place,
which is the leading strength (sinew) of his argument, ΠΑΝΤΌς. For
ΠΑΝΤΌς, neut., without the article, is goodGreek, since it is used by Hesiod,
ΠΛΈΟΝ ἭΜΙΣΥ ΠΑΝΤΟς, the half (obtained by fair means) is more than
the whole (obtained unfairly). This ΠᾶΝ, this all, to which οὐδὲν, nothing,
likewise in the neuter, is opposed, Hebrews 2:8, and in which all, in the masc.,
are included, John 3:35-36, chiefly comprehends angels, than whom Christ
had been made a little (or for a little) lower; and thus the Protasis and
Apodosis correspondto eachother, We do not yet see all things subject to
Him, but yet that for which He tasteddeath is ALL (ΠᾶΝ), ‘Omne.’ II.) To
taste death, implies the reality, and yet in this place also the shortness, of
death; as Chrysostom, Sedulius, Haymo, Flacius, on this passage,
acknowledge.III.) Hence we at length gather the meaning of ὙΠῈΡ, for all

(παντὸς, omni); Germ, um alles, not für alle: ὑπὲρ denotes here the thing to be
obtained, as in John 11:4; 2 Corinthians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 12:8; 2
Corinthians 12:19; 2 Thessalonians 1:5. He tasteddeath for all (omni), that He
might claim all (‘omne’) for Himself, that He might obtain power over all
things: or in other words, for this, that what was written might be fulfilled to
Him, Thou hast put ALL (OMNE) under His feet. IV.) That All has a very
manifest and proper exception. Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:27, treating of the same
psalm, the same verse, and the same word, ‫,לכ‬ all, adds, it is manifest that He
is excepted, who put all things under Him. The same exception therefore is
made in this place, ΧΩΡῚς ΘΕΟῦ ὙΠῈΡ ΠΑΝΤΌς, all, but God, is subjectto
Christ: χωρὶς is used to express an exception. So Epiphanius, διὰ παντὸς,
χωρὶς πεντηκοστῆς, atall times except Pentecost:hæres. lxxv. Thomas
Magisterwrites, ΤῸ ΠΛῊΝ ΚΑῚ ΤῸ ἘΚΤῸς, ΤῸ ΧΩΡΊς ΔΗΛΟῦΣΙ;
ΧΩΡῚς is explained by πλὴν and ἘΚΤῸς, except. Theodoritus acknowledges
that χωρὶς in this passage expressesanexception; and the parallelism of the
psalm shows us what the exceptionis. And the exception itself very
significantly, and yet, lestthe discourse should he interrupted, very briefly,
points out the vastextent of the things subject to Christ, which are absolutely
all but God; and the exceptionis properly put before the subject, from which
the exceptionis made. The same clause, if ΧΆΡΙΤΙ, by grace, be retained, will
be thus explained: that by the grace ofGOD He might taste death for
everything. By the grace of GOD in regard to us, Galatians 2:21; Romans 5:8,
and to Jesus Himself. His enemies thought that Jesus sufferedand died in
consequence ofthe wrath of GOD, Psalm22:8-9; Psalm69:27; Isaiah53:4;
John 19:7. But it was altogetherby the grace ofGod, that He suffered and
died, of which grace the gift is honour and glory: Php 2:9, ἐχαρίσατο, “God
hath given Him,” etc.; Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52; Romans 5:15. And this noun,
ΧΆΡΙΤΙ, expressesthe same idea as the verbs, ΜΙΜΝΉΣΚῌ, ἘΠΙΣΚΈΠΤῌ,
rememberest(“art mindful”), visitest, Hebrews 2:6, from that eighth Psalm.
In this interpretation, ὙΠῈΡ ΠΑΝΤῸς might be equivalent to for all (men),
Germ. für alle, so far as the prepositionis concerned, but the neuter, παντός,
is an objection[therefore it must be for everything: in order that everything
may be subject to Him]. We now inquire which reading is genuine. I am not
ignorant that ΧΆΡΙΤΙ is more favourably receivedthan ΧΩΡῚς, and I would
be disposed, without any trouble, to dismiss the latter and adopt the former.
But when the question concerns the word of GOD, even one little word of
GOD, we ought to settle nothing merely to gain time. The over-officiousnessof
the transcribers, which seeksafterall things plain, more easilychanged
ΧΩΡῚς into ΧΆΡΙΤΙ, than ΧΆΡΙΤΙ into ΧΩΡῚς; and yet ΧΩΡῚς remains in
ancient, numerous, and important documents. The list is given in App. Crit.

To them may be added the book of the Abbot Anastasius againstthe Jews,
who flourished in Palestine in the eighth century, directly exhibiting this
reading. Norwill any one, I hope, callin question this reading, nor the
interpretation which has been here proposedby us; yet it is open to the reader
to considerthe matter more fully. La Croze, lib. 3., de Christianismo Indico, c.
iii, § 64, shows the consistency(unanimous agreement)of the Syriac copies in
joining both readings.—ΓΕΎΣΗΤΑΙ, might taste)The reality of death is
implied in this phrase, as everywhere else;and here, as we have said, at the
same time the shortness (τὸ βραχὺ)of its duration, for denoting which the gen.
θανάτου is well fitted; comp. ch. Hebrews 6:4, note. To taste a part of death is
one thing; a part or the shortness ofthe time, in which the whole of death is
tasted, is another.[17] Matthew 16:28 does not present any objection to the
significationof shortness of duration; for there the expressionis negative, as
in Luke 14:24. Moreover, Psalms 34 :(8) 9, gives weight to this view, γεύσασθε
καὶ ἴδετε, i.e. Only taste and you will see;otherwise taste would not be put
before sight.
[16] ABCD(Δ)f Vulg. read χάριτι. Orig. 4, 41c, 392b, 393c,450b, reads χωρὶς:
but in the two first places quoted he mentions the reading χάριτι, but
evidently not as the generallyreceivedone.—ED.
[17] It is the latter, not the former, that is true of Jesus;for He tasted the
whole of death, though its duration was short.—ED.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 9. - The phrase βραχύ τι, where it occurs in this
verse with reference to Christ's temporary humiliation, is by many takento
mean "for a little while," on the ground that this meaning suits best the
application to Christ, though its most obvious meaning in the psalm (quoted in
ver. 7) is, as in the A.V., "a little." The Greek in itself will bear either
meaning; and if "a little" be, as it seems to be, the original meaning in the
psalm, there is no necessityforsupposing a departure from it. All that the
writer need be supposedto intimate is that Christ, through his incarnation,
took man's position as representedin the psalm. Forthe suffering of death. So
the A.V. renders, connecting the words by punctuation with the clause
preceding; the idea being supposed to be that Christ was "made a little lower
than the angels" witha view to the "suffering of death;" i.e. because ofthe
"suffering of death" which he had to undergo. But the proper force of διὰ
with the accusative is better preserved, and a better meaning given to the
passage, by connecting διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου with the clause that
follows, and translating, But we see him who has been made a little lowerthan

the angels, Jesus, becauseofthe suffering of death crownedwith glory and
honor. His crowning was the consequence ofhis suffering; because ofhis
suffering he was crowned;he won, as man, and in virtue of his human
obedience unto death, his position of "glory and honor." Exactly the same
idea is found in Hebrews 5:7, etc., where the purpose and result of Christ's
suffering, here anticipated, are more explicitly set forth (cf. also Hebrews
12:2). This view, too, suits the drift of the passagebefore us, which is that
human nature has been exalted in the PersonofChrist. That he, by the grace
of God, should taste death for every man. Two questions arise here:
(1) As to the meaning of the expression, "thathe should taste death," etc.;
(2) as to the true reading, as well as the meaning, of the phrase translated "by
the grace ofGod." As to
(1), the clause is introduced by ὅπως, followedby the subjunctive, ὅπως
γεύσηται:and the constructionof the sentence evidently connects it, not with
ἠλαττωμένον, but with ἐστεφανωμένονIt is, "Becauseofthe suffering of
death crownedwith glory and honor, in order that for [i.e. in behalf of] all he
may taste of death." Now, the factthat the actualdeath was previous to the
crowning suggests reference, notso much to it as to its permanent efficacy:
and, further, the emphatic words are ὑπὲρ παντὸς, as shownby their position
in the sentence;and thus the idea seems to be, "In order that for all his tasting
of death may be availing." And he may even be regarded as still tasting of
death after his crowning, in the sense ofknowing its taste through his human
experience, and so perfectly sympathizing with mortal man (cf. Hebrews 5:15,
and below in this chapter, vers. 14, 15). It is a further question whether
παντὸς should be here taken as masculine, as in the A.V., or, like the
preceding πάντα, as neuter, in the sense of "allcreation." The latter rendering
seems in itself more natural, though" all mankind" must be conceivedas the
main idea in the writer's view. At the same time, it is to be remembered how
the redemption is elsewherespokenofas availing for creationgenerally, for
the restitution of universal harmony (cf. Romans 8:19, etc.;Ephesians 1:10,
20, etc.). A further reasonfor understanding παντὸς in the wider sense will
appear in our examination of the phrase next to be considered.
(2) As to the reading χάριτι Θεοῦ. It is found in all existing manuscripts except
in one uncial of the tenth century (Codex Uffenbach, cited as M), in a
scholium to Codex 67, and in a codexof the Peschito. But, on the other hand,
Origen, an earlierauthority than any manuscript, speaks ofthe prevalent

reading in his time being χωρὶς Θεοῦ χάριτι being found only in some copies
(ἐν τισιν ἀντιγράφοσις). Theodoret, Theodorus ofMopsuestia, andthe
Nestorians also readχωρὶς:and the Latin Fathers, Ambrose, Fulgentius, and
others, have absque as its equivalent. Jerome also speaksofthe reading
absque, but as occurring only "in quibusdam exemplaribus" - thus reversing
in his day what Origenhad said two centuries earlieras to the comparative
prevalence of the two readings. The charge made by Marius Mercator,
Theophylact, and OEcumenius againstthe Nestorians, that they had
introduced the reading χωρὶς in support of their own views, is evidently
untenable, since the testimony of Origenproves its prevalence long before the
Nestoriancontroversy. It is, on the other hand, very probable that the use
made of this reading by the Nestorians was a cause ofthe other being clung to
by the orthodox, and being retained almost exclusivelyin the existing codices.
And this probability greatlyweakens the force of the evidence of the
manuscripts as to the original reading. That both were very early ones is
evident; but that χωρὶς was the original one is probable for two reasons:
(1) that Origen testifies to its prevalence in his early day, and accepts it as at
leastequally probable with the other; and
(2) that transcribers were more likely to change the unusual and somewhat
difficult χωρὶς into the familiar and easyχάριτι than vice versa. Theodorus of
Mopsuestia thus accounts for the reading χάριτι, which he rejects very
decidedly. He says that some persons, not observing the sequence ofthe
passage, hadlaughably changedthe true reading, because they did not
understand it, into one that seemedeasyto them. If χάριτι be the true reading,
the meaning is plain enough; it expresses the view, often reiterated by St.
Paul, of the whole work of redemption being "of grace." The objectionto it,
on internal grounds, is that the introduction of this view here seems flat and
purposeless, as Theodorus ofMopsuestia forcibly contends in his argument
againstthe reading. Ξωρὶς, then, being adopted, the question remains whether
to connectχωρὶς Θεοῦ (as Theodorus of Mopsuestia does, and as the
Nestorians must have done) with γεύσηται θανάτου, orwith ὑπὲρ παντός. If
takenwith the former, its purpose must be to exclude the Godheadin Christ
from participation in the taste of death. Some further explain by reference to
the cry from the cross, "MyGod, my God, why hast thou forsakenme?" But
such reference does not suit the view above taken of the intended meaning o
ὅπως γεύσηται θανάτου. Takenwith ὑπὲρ παντός (as is rather suggestedby
the arrangementof the sentence, in which this is the emphatic phrase), it gives
the meaning, "that for all except God he may taste of death" - this

parentheticalexception of the Divine Being himself being similar to that which
St. Paul sees reasonfor inserting in his application of the same psalm to
Christ: Δῆλον ὅτι ἐκτὸς τοῦ ὑποτάζαντος αὐτῶ τὰ πάντα (1 Corinthians
15:27). So Origentakes it: Αἰ τε δὲ "χωρὶς Θεοῦ ὑπὲρ παντὸς ἐγεύσατο
θανάτον," οὐμόνονὑπὲρἀνθρώπων ἀπέθανεν ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν λοιπῶν
λογικῶν. Also Theodoret:Υπὲρ ἀπάντων τοίνυντὸ σωτήριονὑπέμεινε πάθος
χωρὶς Θεοῦ μόνη γὰρ ἡ θεία φύσις τῆς ἐντεῦθεν γενομένης θεραπείας
ἀνενδεής. The latter Fatherexplains the wide sense in which it follows that
ὑπὲρ παντὸς must be understoodby referring to what St. Paul says (Romans
8:21) of creationitself being delivered from the bondage of corruption
through Christ, and to the rejoicing of angels in the salvation of man.
Vincent's Word StudiesJesus- made a little lower, etc.
Repeatedfrom Hebrews 2:7. To be subordinated to the angels is the same as
being "made under the law," Galatians 4:4. In that chapter Paul shows that
the law under which the church in its state of pupilage was kept (Galatians
3:23; Galatians 4:3) was instituted through the mediation of angels (Galatians
3:19). Then, as interchangeable with under the law, Paul has "enslavedunder
the elements (ὑπὸ τὰ στοιχεῖα) ofthe world" (Galatians 4:3, Galatians 4:9).
These elements are elemental forces orspirits, as appears from a correct
interpretation of Colossians 2:8, Colossians 2:20. The subjection to elemental
spirits is only anotherform of subjection to the angels of the law, and our
author uses this doctrine to show the mutable nature of angels in contrastwith
the immutable perfection of the Son(see Hebrews 1:7, Hebrews 1:8). This
accords with the Epistle to the Colossians whichdeals with the heresyof
angel-worship, and in which the worship of angels is representedas connected
with the service ofelemental or cosmic forces. Very striking is Colossians
2:15. When the bond of the law was rendered void in Christ's crucifixion, that
ministry of angels which waited on the giving of the law was setaside by God
(ἀπεκδύσαμενος) having stripped off, revealing Christ as the head of every
principality and power. God made a show or display of them (ἐδειγμάτισεν) as
subordinate and subject to Christ. He thus boldly (ἐν παρρησίᾳ), by a bold
stroke, put his own chosenministers in subjection before the eyes of the world.
See on Colossians 2:15. The use of the human name, Jesus, atthis point, is
significant. In this epistle that name usually furnishes the keyto the argument
of the passagein which it occurs. See Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews
12:2.
For the suffering of death crownedwith glory and honor (διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ
θανάτου δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεφανωμένον)

The usual interpretation connects forthe suffering of death with made lower
than the angels, meaning that Jesus was subordinatedto the angels for the
suffering of death. But for the suffering of death should be connectedwith
crowned, etc. Δια should be rendered because of. Jesus was crownedwith
glory and honor because ofthe suffering of death. Christ's exaltation and
preeminence over the angels was wonthrough humiliation and death. For
crowned, see on 2 Timothy 2:5. Exaltation was the logicalresult of Christ's
humiliation (comp. Philippians 2:9), not simply its recompense (comp.
Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11;Luke 18:14). He was glorified in humiliation.
"The humiliation is only the glory not yet begun."
By the grace ofGod (χάριτι θεοῦ)
God manifested his grace in giving Christ the opportunity of tasting death for
every man, and so abolishing death as a curse. The same thought of glory in
humiliation is expressedin John 1:14. To be called to the office of "apostle
and high-priest of our confession" (Hebrews 3:1), an office which involved
personalhumiliation and death, was to be "crownedwith glory and honor,"
and was a signaltokenof God's favor. Note John 12:23, John 12:28;John
13:31, John 13:32, in which Jesus speaks ofhis approaching passionas itself
his glorification. Comp. Hebrews 3:3. It was desirable to show to Jews who
were tempted to stumble at the doctrine of a crucified Messiah(Galatians
3:13), that there was a glory in humiliation.
Should taste death (γεύσηται θανάτου)
The phrase is found severaltimes in the Gospels, as Matthew 16:28;Mark
9:1; Luke 9:27; John 8:52. See on Luke 9:27; see on John 8:52.
The following statement justifies the bold assertionof Hebrews 2:9. With a
view to the recoilof Jewishreaders from the thought of a suffering Messiah(1
Corinthians 1:23), the writer will show that Jesus'suffering and death were
according to the divine fitness of things.

Seeing Jesus
“We see Jesus.”
Hebrews 2:9
THE Apostle, in this verse, does not claim to have seenthe Lord in the flesh,
although he boasts in another passagethat he has done so, and asserts itas
one of the proofs of his Apostleship. He is not, indeed, in this text referring to
any seeing ofthe Lord by mortal eyes at all–he is speaking offaith–he means a
spiritual sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. The point to which I shall have to
draw your attention this evening is that sight is very frequently used in
Scripture as a metaphor, an illustration, a symbol to setforth what faith is.
Faith is the eye of the soul. It is the actof looking unto Jesus. In that act, by
which we are saved, we look unto Him and are savedfrom the very ends of the
earth. We look to Him and we find salvation. So far as seeing with these
natural eyes of ours is concernedit is the very opposite of faith. We have
heard people speak as though they wished they had lived in the Savior’s day
and could have seenHim. It must have been a greatprivilege to those who
were spiritually-minded, but it was no privilege (as they know now, alas, to
their regret), to those who were spiritually blind–for many of those who saw
our Lord and heard Him preach, rose up in wrath to thrust Him out of the
synagogue, andcastHim down the brow of the cliff.
Instead of being overawedby His sweetmajesty, or won by that love which sat
upon His brow, they scoffedatHim, said He was a Samaritan, had a devil,
and was mad! Even the sight of Jesus Christupon the Cross did not convert
the men that stood there, but they thrust out their tongues and calledHim by
ignominious titles and increasedthe sorrows ofHis death by their scornful
expressions. To see JesusChristwith the natural eye is nothing, my Brothers
and Sisters, for this shall be the lot of all men! They shall look on Him whom
they have pierced and shall weepand wail because ofHim.
The sight of Him, when He shall come in the latter days to judge the earth in
righteousness, willbe the source of terror to the wickedso that there canbe
no kind of benefit, certainly no saving blessing, from such a sight of Jesus
Christ with the eyes as will be afforded even to lostspirits. The Apostle is

speaking ofthe spiritual eye here. He is speaking ofthat mental vision which
God affords to those who have had their eyes anointed with heavenly eye salve
by the Holy Spirit that they may see. And our business tonight is, first of all, to
show why faith is so frequently compared to the sense of sight.
1. Let us, in the first place, give our attention for a few minutes TO THE
REASON WHY FAITH IS COMPARED TO SIGHT. Is not sight, in
many respects, the noblest of all the senses? To be deprived of any of
our sensesis a greatloss, but perhaps the greatestdeprivation of all is
the loss of sight. Certainly, whatever may be the degree of pain that may
follow the loss of any other sense, they who lose their sight lose the
noblest of human faculties.
For observe, in the first place, that sight is marvelously quick. How
wondrously fast and far it travels! It does not take you an hour to make a
journey from one part of the country to anotherby your eyes. You are on a
mountain and you can see 50 or a 100 miles, as the case may be, and you see it
by the simple opening of the eyes. It is all there. Your thought is flashedfar
awayin an instant, in the twinkling of your eye. Standing on some of the
Alpine summits, you look far and wide and see lakes spreadat a distance
beneath your feet. And far awaythere is a range of black mountains, or of
hills clothed with snow.
You know they are, perhaps, 200 miles distant, but in a moment you are
there! So quick does the sense ofsight travel that we go to the moon or to the
sun without knowing that any space of time is takenup by our eyes traveling
there! And those remote stars which the astronomers tell us are so distant that
they can scarcelycompute how far off they are, yet my eye travels to them in a
secondof time when I gaze upon the starry firmament! So quickly does sight
travel–and equally rapid is the actionof faith!
Brethren, we know not where Heaven may be–where the state, the place
called“Heaven” is–but faith takes us there in contemplation in a single
moment. We cannot tell when the Lord may come–itmay not be for centuries
yet–but faith steps over the distance in a moment and sees Him coming in the
clouds of Heaven, and hears the trumpet of resurrection!It would be very
difficult, indeed, it would be impossible for us to travel backwardin any other
chariot than that of faith, for it is faith which helps us to see the creationof
the world when the morning stars sang togetherand the sons of God shouted
for joy!
Faith enables us to walk in the garden with our first parents and to witness
the scene whenGod promised that the Seedof the woman should bruise the

serpent’s head. Faith makes us familiar with Patriarchs and gives us to see the
troubles and trials of kings. Faith takes us to Calvary’s summit and we stand
and see our Savior as plainly as did His mother when she stoodsorrowfully at
the footof the Cross. We this day can fly back to the solemn day of Pentecost
and feelas if we could hear the mighty rushing wind, and see the cloven
tongues sitting upon the chosencompany, so swiftly does faith travel!
And, bestof all, in one moment faith cantake a sinner out of a state of death
into a state of life, can lift him from damnation into salvation, can remove him
from the land of the shadow of death, where he sat in affliction and irons, and
give him the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit
of heaviness!O Sinner, you can getat Christ in a moment of time! No sooner
has your heart trusted Jesus than you are with Him–united to Him!
You need not say, “Where is He? I would fly to Heaven if I could but find
Him, or dive under Hell’s most profound wave if I could but embrace Him.”
He is near you, so near that the actof faith conveys you at once into His
bosom, plunges you into His blood, clothes you with His righteousness, adopts
you into the family of God and makes you co-heirwith Jesus Christ–joint-heir
with Him in all things! See, then, why faith is like sight, because ofthe
rapidity of its operations, requiring no time so that a dying sinner, believing in
Jesus, is savedat the 11 th hour, needing not to go roundabout to do penances,
and pass through probationary periods and I know not what besides!He may
come to Jesus, weary, and worn and sad. And the road to Jesus, though it
seems long to some, is so short that one step takes you there. You have but to
leave self behind, and trust in Him, and you are with Him! “We see Jesus.”
Faith, then, is like sight for its quickness.
Is not faith like sight, too, in the secondplace, for its largeness? Itis a
wonderful faculty, that of sight. Your eyes and mine take in at once the whole
of this building with all the assembledcompany. These eyes will next, if they
are placedat a point of vantage, take in the entire city of London with the
whole of its populous streets. Give the eyes but the opportunity, let the sun go
down, and they will take in all the thousands of worlds that stud the brow of
night. What is there which the eye cannot grasp, and mark you, not the eye of
the greatand mighty only, but of the poorestalso? Yes, the little insignificant
eyes of the lark cantake in as much, no doubt, as the big eyes of the bull. And
the smallesteyes that God creates He enables to compass greatthings.
A marvelous thing is that eye, darting its shafts everywhere, sending its rays
around and embracing all things. Now, just such a power is faith. What a
faculty faith has for grasping everything, for it lays hold upon the past, the
present, and the future! It pierces through most intricate things and sees God

producing goodout of all the tortuous circumstances ofProvidence. And what
is more, faith does what the eyes cannotdo–it sees the Infinite! It beholds the
Invisible! It looks upon that which eye has not seen, which ear has not heard–
it sees beneaththe veil that parts us from the land of terror, and, moved with
fear–it makes us fly to the Savior!
Faith sees through the pearly gate, and, beholding the glory of the better land,
it makes us fly to Jesus who bears the keys of Paradise atHis waist. Faith
sees–Iknow not how to describe fully what faith sees–whatis there she does
not behold? She sees evenGod Himself, for though in my finite conceptionI
cannot graspGod, and my understanding canonly perceive, as it were, His
train and skirts, yet my faith, with awful comprehension, cantake in the
whole of God and believe what she does not know, and acceptwhatshe cannot
comprehend!
Oh, wondrous faculty of faith! God give it to you, my dear Hearer! God give
you more and more of it so that it may be to you the substance of things hoped
for, and the evidence of things not seen, and that all comprehending faculty
shall enable you to say–
“All things are mine, the gift of God,
The purchase of a Savior’s blood.
This world is mine, and worlds to come.
Earth is my lodge, and Heaven my home.”
Again, sight is a most remarkable faculty, because, inthe judgment of most
men, it is very sure. We believe that we are often deceivedby hearing. We are
inclined, often, when we hear a story, to say, “I would believe that if I saw it,
but I would not otherwise. I have been so often deceivedby hearing tales that
I cannot always credit what my ears tell me.”
We know how, by feelings, we are readily enough deceived, like Isaac, who
would not have given his blessing to Jacobhad not his eyes waxed dim, and
his touch deceivedhim. But “seeing is believing,” according to the world’s
proverb. When a man sees a thing, then he says he knows it, though, indeed,
of late years especially, we have learned that even sight itself is not always to
be trusted, for the most extraordinary illusions have been practicedupon
persons for amusement and have become a part of the apparatus of pleasure
and philosophy. You cannot believe your own eyes nowadays!
You see a great many things, or think you see them, which are not there. And
things which you could declare to be in such-and-such a position turn out not
to be there at all–it is merely some reflection, or some delusion, simple enough
when explained–but most puzzling until it is opened up to you. However, sight

is generallyregarded by men to be the most sure of all our faculties. If we see
a thing, there it is–there is no questioning it.
Now faith has this certifying powerin a much higher degree, for the faith
which is of the operation of God and which distinguishes His own elect, is
infallible. The faith of God’s people will not believe a lie. It is written that “if
it were possible,” such-and-such“would deceive the very elect,” but it is not
possible. Where faith takes the Word of God as her basis, and rests upon it,
she becomes aninfallible faculty, and we may depend upon that which she
reveals to us. It is a glorious thing to know certainties, suchas the existence of
God, and the Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Such
blessedcertainties as the effectualAtonement which has put awaythe sin of
the Lord’s people and such certainties as the enjoyment of the Presence ofthe
Holy Spirit in His indwelling powerwithin our soul. May we have much of
this faith which is like sight for its certifying power!
Once more, is not faith wondrously like sight from its powerto affectthe
mind, and enable a man to realize a thing? What I mean is this. That eminent
preacherin America, Mr. Beecher,frequently used to address his audience
upon Negro slavery. his touching eloquence neverfailed to move his people to
an abhorrence of the thing and to a sympathy with those who smarted under
its power. But on one occasion, as I have been told, he wished to produce an
extraordinary feeling in order to raise a large sum of money for a certain
purpose.
He therefore spoke enthusiasticallyupon the sorrows ofa beautiful girl,
almost white, but still with sufficient African blood in her veins for her master
to claim her for his slave–andshe was about to be sold far south for the worst
of purposes. Mr. Beecherwantedto touch the hearts of his people to purchase
her liberty, that she, their Sisterin Christ, might be freed. He had spoken
earnestly, but to produce the required effecthe calledher from her seat, and
bade her stand up in the midst, and you may guess that that morning there
was no difficulty in collecting allthe needed funds to set her free. The sight of
the slave-girlhad moved their hearts as the preacher’s words could not do.
Now, it is so usually. We talk about poverty, but when do you feel your hands
go into your pockets so freely as when you have been visiting a poor family
where the little ones are crying for bread, and where the parents have no
means for providing for them? You feel for orphans. Many of us do very
sincerely, but we never felt for them so thoroughly as when we beganto deal
with them and to see them and their widowedmothers. In our newly-founded
Orphanage–forwhich I would bespeak your help continually–we have had
already to deal with many fatherless ones. We have come more than ever into

contactwith them and we feel that the fatherless are, indeed, objects of pity,
for the sight of them and of the widows has put the thing forcibly before us.
We have heard of one who, being cold in the streets and seeing a poor
shivering family, thought that winter was very hard, and that when he got
home he would take care to put by some money to buy blankets for them. But
when he had sat down by the fire, and thoroughly warmed himself and
partakenof his cheerful meal, he thought the weathermust be changed, and
that it was not so bad a thing, after all, to have a little winter. And so the
blankets were never bought, and the poor were never cared for. There is
nothing like sight, my Brothers and Sisters, to convince–notwithstanding the
moment when sight is over, feelings may depart.
Now faith has also this mighty reasoning powerin even a higher degree. If it is
real faith it makes the Christian man, in dealing with God, feeltowards God
as though he saw Him. It gives him the same awe, and yet the same joyous
confidence which he would have if he were capable of actuallybeholding the
Lord. Faith, when it takes a stand at the foot of the Cross, makes us hate sin
and love the Savior just as much as though we had seenour sins placedto
Christ’s accountand had seenthe nails driven through His hands and feet and
seenthe bloody scourges as theymade the sacreddrops of blood fall–
“We were not with the faithful few
Who stoodYour bitter Cross around.
Nor heard Your prayer for those who slew,
Nor felt that earthquake rock the ground.
We saw no spearpierce Your side–
Yet we can feelthat You have died.”
Faith realizes the thing and thus becomes “the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.” Hence the glory and the beauty of faith.
Now, many of you have heard about the wrath of God but it has all been
forgotten. You have heard about the judgment and the wrath of Godto come
afterwards. You have heard of the Atonement, and the power of Jesus to put
awaysin. But you have had no effect produced upon your minds, because, as
the Apostle puts it, “It was not mixed with faith in them that heard it.” But if
you had had faith in that which was proclaimed, and had come savingly to
trust in the Truth of God which was presentedas the grounds of your
salvation, you would have been moved, and stirred, and excited, and led to
hate sin and to fly to Jesus!God grant to us, then, that we may have more and
more faith. I have thus, I trust, at sufficient length shown the parallel between
faith and sight.

II. And now we shall spend a minute or two upon another thought, namely,
that FAITH, THE SIGHT OF THE SOUL, IS HERE SPOKEN OF AS A
CONTINUOUS THING. “We see Jesus.”It does not say, “We cansee Jesus”–
that is true enough–the spiritual eye cansee the Savior. Nordoes it say, “We
have seenHim.” That also, glory be to God, is a delightful fact! We have seen
the Lord, and we have rejoicedin seeing Him. Nor does the text say, “We shall
see Him,” though this is our pride and our hope, that “when He shall appear,
we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is.”
The text says, “We see Jesus.”We see Him now and continually. This is the
common habit of the Christian! It is the elementof his spiritual life. It is his
most delightful occupation. It is his constantpractice. “We see Jesus.” Dear
Brothers and Sisters, I am afraid some of us forgetthis. Forinstance, we see
Jesus Christ as our Savior, we being sinners still. And is it not a delightful
thing always to feel one’s selfa sinner, and always to stand looking to Christ
as one’s Savior, thus beholding Him evermore? “As you have receivedChrist
Jesus the Lord, even so walk you in Him”–not merely sometimes coming to
Him as you came at first, but evermore abiding in Him.
“To whom coming”–always coming, constantlycoming–“asunto a living
stone.” I was present at a meeting of Believers a short time ago when a
conversationof this kind occurred. A Brother in the Lord, one of the most
fervent men I know, saidthat sometimes when his piety flaggedand his heart
grew cold, he found it a very blessedthing to go and visit the sick and the
dying. He found this to be such a sweetrestorationto his faith that he
recommended us all, as often as we could, to frequent dying beds.
Now another Brother who was present, who preaches the Gospel, but who at
the same time is a butcher, said he thanked God he did not need to go to a
dying bed to see Jesus and to get his heart set right. He said that he had had as
sweetfellowshipwith God in Camden TownMarketas he ever had in the
House of Prayer. And he said that he found it best always to live as his
Brother wished to live sometimes, namely, always conscious ofsin and always
looking to the Sin-Offering. Come to Jesus, then, as you came at first! Fly to
the fountain always as needing constantcleansing–notas though you had not
been washed, but still abiding–continuing in blessedrecognitionof your
present cleansing that flows from the fountain filled with blood.
It is very sweetto remember that the fountain we sing about as being opened
in Jerusalem, is opened“for the house of David and for the inhabitants of
Jerusalem”–notso much for sinners, though it is openedfor them, as for
Believers–“forthe house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Letus
always be coming to it! And eachmorning and eachnight, let this be the cry of

our spirit, “Still guilty, still vile, still polluted, we see Jesus,and, seeing Him,
we know that we are saved.”
Should not this, also, be the mode of our life in another respect? We are now
disciples. Being savedfrom our former our Master? Ought not this to be the
motto of our life, “We see Jesus”?We should not regardthe commands of
Jesus Christ as being a law left to us by a departed Masterwhom we cannot
see, and to whom we cannot fly. Is it not better to believe that Christ is a living
Christ, that He is in the midst of His Church still, observing our order, noting
our obedience orour disobedience, a Masterabsentin one sense, but still in
another point of view ever present, according to His promise–“Lo, I am with
you always, evenunto the end of the world”? We should–
“Staywith Him near the tree,
Stay with Him near the tomb.
Stay till the risen Lord we see,
Stay watching ‘till He come.”
My Brethren, could we be so frequently coldand carelessif we could always
see Jesus?Would our hearts be so hard towards perishing sinners if we
always saw that face which was bedewedwith tears for them? Do you think
we could sit still, or grow worldly, or spend all our energies upon ourselves if
we could see the Crucified, who though “He saved others, Himself He could
not save”? Iwish I could always come here to preach Jesus “seeing” Him by
my side, and feeling in my heart that I was preaching in my Master’s
Presence.I would that you could always come into this place, both at Prayer
Meetings and at all other times, feeling, “The Masteris here. Let us bow as in
His sight. Let our worship be given–not to One who is blind, and who will not
see us–but to One who beholds us all and sees ourinmost thoughts.”
As disciples we should be more punctual in our obedience, more consistentin
our imitation of Jesus if we had Him always before us. The Romanistputs up
the crucifix idol before his eyes. Well, let us put up Christ in our spirits. He
wears the cross onhis bosom. Let us carry Christ in our heart, still thinking of
Jesus, seeing Him at all times. Would it not also, dear Friends, be very much
for our comfort if we were to see Jesus always as ourFriend in our sojourn
here? “Henceforth,” He says, “I callyou not servants, but I have called you
friends.”
You are very poor, my dear Brother. Do you see Jesus? He was poorerthan
you. You have somewhere to go to sleeptonight, but He could say, “The foxes
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Sonof Man has not
where to lay His head.” Are you rackedwith pain tonight? Let it help you to

see Jesus. Youare not “exceedinglysorrowfuleven unto death,” nor are your
griefs to be comparedwith His. Have you been desertedand betrayed? See
Jesus kissedby Judas! Have you been denied by some friend who promised to
be faithful? Look into the face of Jesus as He turns to Peter!Does deathitself
stare you in the face? RememberHim who, “being found in fashion as a Man,
humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
Cross.”
We would never be alone if we could see Jesus,orat least, if we were, it would
be a blessedsolitude! We would never feeldesertedif we could see Jesus–we
would have the best of Helpers. I know we would not feel weak if we always
saw Him, for He would be our strength and our song. He would become our
salvation. The bitter waters of Marah–the afflictions and troubles of the day
would all be sweet if this tree were castinto the flood for us, and if Jesus were
brought, in solemn meditation, into contactwith our spirits. Oh, to see Jesus!
You have seenHim as your Savior–youdesire to see Him as your Master. Oh,
to see Him as your Friend upon whose bosomyou can still lean your aching
head, into whose earyou can ever pour your tale of sorrow!Through the
wilderness you may continually come up leaning on your Beloved, and with
Him you may have perpetually such sweetenjoyments, that earth, desert as it
is, shall seemto blossomlike a garden of roses and your spirit shall enjoy
Heaven below!
Again, would it not be much better for us, dear Friends, if we were to see
Jesus as our Forerunner? I do not know whether it is so with the most of you,
but while some of us rejoice in the prospectof Heaven, yet the thought of
death is sometimes surrounded with much gloom. It cannotbe an easything
to go down amidst the chill darkness ofthe river, and there to be separated,
the soulfrom the body, and to leave this earthly tabernacle behind an
inheritance to worms. It has a hideous appearance to us sometimes.
Even the Apostle himself shuddered a little at it when he said, “Notthat we
would be unclothed, but clothedupon.” Deathseems a bitter pill to us all, and
unless it is swallowedup in victory–and the victory takes awaythe sting of
death–the hour of dissolution will be bitter. But do you not think that our
thoughts of gloom about death sometimes arise from a forgetfulness that Jesus
will be with us? If our faith could see Jesus as making our bed in our sickness
and then standing by our side in the lastsolemn article to conduct us safely
through the iron gates–shouldwe not, then,
“Oh if my Lord would come and meet,
My soulshould stretch her wings in haste,

Fly fearless throughDeath’s iron gate,
Nor feelthe terrors as she passed.
Jesus canmake a dying bed
Feelsoft as downy pillows are,
While on His breast I lean my head,
And breathe my life out sweetlythere.”
My dear Brothers and Sisters, gathering up all I should like to have said, but
cannot say, into one, it is this–if we see Jesus as being always with us, from
morn till eve, in life and in death–whatnoble Christians it will make us! Now
we shall not get angry with eachother so quickly. We shall see Jesus!We
cannot be angry when that dear loving face is in view. And when we have been
affronted we shall be very ready to forgive when we see Jesus. Who canhate
his brother when he sees that face, that tender face, more marred than that of
any man? When we see Jesus, do you think we shall get worldly? Would you
have spokenas you did across the counter today, Brother, had you seenJesus?
My dear Friend, would you have been as you have been to your work-fellow?
Would you have spokenas you did to your servants? Would you have actedas
you did to your masterhad you seenJesus? Theysay“a master’s eye does
much.” Certainly the Presence ofJesus woulddo much! “The master’s eye
does more than both his hands,” they say. Oh, for that consciousnessofthe
eyes of Jesus, whichshall be like the hands of Jesus molding us according to
His will. “We see Jesus.”
Now, I hope you do see Jesus as you sit in the pews there. Sometimes on
Sunday, when the Lord helps the preacher, and Christ is evidently setforth
among you, you have seenJesus. Butwill you see Him after you have gone
down those steps? Will you see Him when you gethome to your houses? Will
you see Him the next morning in the workroom, orat the business, or in the
market? This is not quite so easy, and yet I hold that if we had more Divine
Grace we would see Christ just as well in the market, among the baskets of
fruit, as we can at the Tabernacle sitting in our pews!We would see Him quite
as well if we were driving a horse, or walking along Cheapside, as when we
are in our closets, bowing the knee. Forthat is true Grace which is with us
always, and that is the PresenceofJesus which abides with us forever. That is
true piety which shines the fairest in the midst of worldly cares. Maywe each
one of us have this–and may it be the expressionof our life–“We see Jesus”–
and then we shall be able to go farther and say, “Forme to live is Christ, and
to die is gain.”
III. I shall detain you just a minute or two longerfor a third point about our
sight of Jesus, namely, we have said that faith is like sight, and that our faith

should be a present Grace in active operation. But there may be this reflection
about our present sight of Christ, that SOMETIMESOUR FAITH, LIKE
OUR SIGHT, IS NOT QUITE CLEAR. You do not always see, Isuppose,
equally well. There are many things that affectthe optic nerves, and we know
that in fair weatherwe can see a greaterdistance than we canin cloudy
weather.
I was at Newcastle,some time ago, in a friend’s house and when I went up to
the top window and lookedout, he said, “There is a fine view, Sir, if you could
but see it. We cansee Durham Cathedralfrom here on Sunday.” “On
Sunday!” I said, “how is that?” “Well, you see allthat smoke down there, all
those furnaces, and so on? They are all stopped on a Sunday, and then, when
the air is clear, we can see Durham Cathedral.” Right awayI thought–ah, we
can see a greatdeal on a Sunday when the smoke of the world is gone for a
little time! We cansee all the way to Heaven, then. But sometimes, whatwith
the smoke we make in business, and the smoke the devil makes, and the smoke
that sin makes, we can scarcelysee anything at all!
Well, since the natural sight has to undergo variations, both from itself within
and from the smoke without, and from the state of the weather–wemust not
wonder if our faith undergoes variations, too. It ought not to do so, but
sometimes it does, There are seasonswhenwe realize that Christ is ours.
Glory be to His name, if all the devils in Hell would speak to the contrary, yet
we know that our Belovedis ours, and that we are His! We are sure of it.
Though all the angels in Heavenshould come and deny it, we would face
them, and say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is
able to keepthat which I have committed unto Him againstthat day.”
But there are other times when the same Believersings Newton’s hymn, but
wheneverhe does, he ought to sing it alone, for fearanybody should catchthe
contagionof it–
“ ‘Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought:
Do I love the Lord or no,
Am I His or am I not?”
There are hours when some of us would be glad to creepinto a mouse hole or
hide ourselves in a nutshell–we feelso little, so insignificant–our faith is at so
miserable an ebb that we know not what to do. Well, let us not be astonished
as though we were not the children of God because ofthis. Everything that
has life has variations. A block of woodis not affectedby the weather, but a
living man is! You may drive a stake into the ground and it will feel no

influence of spring, summer, autumn, or winter–but if the stake is alive and
you drive it into the soil where there is moisture–it will soonbegin to sprout!
And you will be able to tell when spring and winter are coming by the changes
that take place in the living tree. Life is full of these changes–do notwonder,
then, if you experience them.
Again, faith, like sight, is not only subject to variations, but it has great
growth. Our children, in a certain sense, see as truly when they are a day old
as when they are grownup to be 20 years old. But we must not suppose that
they see as accurately, for they do not. I think observations would teachus
that little children see all things as on a level surface, and that distant objects
seemto them to be near, for they have not yet receivedexperience enough to
judge of the relative position of things. That is an acquired knowledge, andno
doubt very early acquired but still it is learned as a matter of mental
experience.
And let me say, though you may not have noticed it, all our measures of
distance by the eye are matters which have to be gained by habit and
observation. When I first went to Switzerland with a friend from Lucerne, we
saw a mountain in the distance which we were going to climb. I pointed out a
place where we should stop half-way up, and I said, “We shall be there in
about four and a half hours.” “Four and a half hours!” my friend said, “I’d
undertake to walk it in ten minutes.” “No, not you.” “Well, but half an hour!”
He lookedagain, and said, “Anybody could get there in half an hour!” It
seemedno distance at all.
And yet when we came to toil up, the four and a half hours turned into five or
six before we reachedthe place!Our eyes were not accustomedto mountains,
and we were not able to measure them. It is only by considerable experience
that you getto understand what a mountain is and how a long distance
appears. You are altogetherdeceivedand do not know the position of things
till you become wiser. And it is just so with faith. Faith in the Christian, when
he first gets it, is true and saving–but it is not in proportion. The man believes
one doctrine, perhaps, and that is so delightful that it swallows up every other.
Then he gets hold of anotherand he swings that way like a pendulum–no
doctrine can be true but that one.
Perhaps in a little time he swings back like a pendulum the other way. He is
unsteady because while his faith perceives the Truth of God, it does not
perceive the harmonies of the Truths of God. His faith, for instance, may
perceive the Lord Jesus Christ, but as yet it has not learned the position which
Christ occupies in the great economyof Divine Grace. He is half-blind, and
cannot see very far. He has sight, but it is not the sight which he will yet

receive. Like the blind man who, when our Lord healedhim, saw men at first
as trees walking, he comes, in due time, to see clearly, for Grace always goes
on in its work–itwill never halt half-way.
Regardless, atfirst all is obscure and confused. Just as when you pass from
darkness into light you are unable to bear it, you are dazzled and need a short
time to accustomyour eyes to the brilliance. But in due time the eyes are
strengthenedand you can bear more and more light till you againsee with
comfort. Let us ask, then, of the Lord, that He will increase our faith till the
mental eyes shall become clearand bright, and that we be made meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, to be with Christ, and to see
Him as He is. If you have but little faith remember that that will save you. The
little diamond is as much a diamond as the Kohinoor. So little faith is as truly
the faith of God’s electas the greatestfaith!
If you but see Jesus,though it is but by the corner of your eye, yet if you see
Him, you shall be saved!And though you may not see as much of Christ as
advancedBelievers do, yet if you see enoughof Him to trust Him, to rely on
Him entirely–your sins, which are many, are forgiven–and you shall yet
receive Grace for Grace until you shall see Him in His Glory. However,
always be praying, “Lord, increase ourfaith.”
The lastthing I have to notice about this true faith in Christ as sight is that it
is at all times a very simple thing to look. Look!No one needs go to a
grammar schoolor to a university to look. Look!The smallestchild, as we
have said, canlook–the mostilliterate and untaught canlook. If there is life in
a look, glory be to God for such a provision because it is available for eachone
of us! Sinner, if you would be saved, there is nothing for you to think upon but
Christ. Do your sins trouble you? Go to Him and trust in Him–and the
moment you look to Him you are saved. “Oh,” says one, “but I cannot do that!
My faith is so weak.”
Well, when I walk about and see a beautiful sight, very seldom do I think
about my own sight–my mind is occupied with the sight–and so let it be with
you. Never mind those eyes–think more about the vision to be seen. Think of
Christ. It would be a pitiful thing if, when there were some greatprocessionin
the streets, allyou thought about was your own eyes. You would see but very
little. Think less about your faith, and more about Jesus–
“WearySinner! Keep your eyes
On the atoning Sacrifice.
View Him bleeding on the tree,
Pouring out His life for you.

Castyour guilty soul on Him,
Find Him mighty to redeem!
At His feet your burden lay.
Look your doubts and fears away.”
Turn over and over in your mind the greattransactionon the Cross. I have
sometimes saidto young seekers, Go home and spend an hour deliberately
reading about the death of Christ. And then picture it in your mind’s eye, for
it is in that way that faith comes. Throughthe Holy Spirit’s powerwe come to
believe that story by thinking upon it, seeing Jesus in it, and then following on
and giving it the full acceptance ofour spirit. Go to the Cross for faith if you
cannot go with faith, and the Lord grant that you may find in Jesus–
“True belief and true repentance,
Every Grace that brings us near,”
so that you, too, may saywith us, “We see Jesus.”
What is there in this world which is worth looking at in comparisonwith
Him? All else is like the mirage of the desert which appears but to fade away,
deluding the wearytraveler with hopes of restand refreshment, and leaving
him sick at heart because allhas passedas the baseless fabric of a dream,
leaving not a wreck behind. Can you gain anything by watching the bubbles
on the stream of time? Will they shake your death thirst and coolyour brow
in the article of death? Is there anything of healing in the uplifted images of
earthly gold, honor, wisdom, and power? You have tried them–well, how do
they answer?
I know of one who, traveling over a pass in Italy one evening, secureda light
to help him over a dangerous and difficult part of the way further on. It was
not neededtill the narrow steepdescentwas reached. In fact, it was in the way
till then, and just as the traveler came to the very spot where it was required,
it went out and left him in utter darkness!So it is full often in the sinner’s
experience who travels in the dark–his lights go out when most needed. Oh,
far better, then, to walk in daylight, using the eye of faith in the clearsunshine
of Gospellight from the Sun of Righteousness!Walk in the light. Come to the
light, and live seeing Jesus–
“We would see Jesus, forthe shadows lengthen
Across this little landscape of our life.
We would see Jesus'our weak faith to strengthen,
For the last weariness,the final strife.
We would see Jesus, the greatRock foundation,
Whereonour feet were setby SovereignGrace.

Nor life nor death, with all their agitation,
Can then remove us if we see His face.
We would see Jesus–senseis all too blinding,
And Heaven appears too dim, too far away.
We would see You, to gain a sweetreminding
That You have promised our greatdebt to pay.
We would see Jesus:this is all we’re needing–
Strength, joy, and willingness, come with the sight!
We would see Jesus, dying, risen, pleading;
Then welcome day, and farewellmortal night!”
The Lord send you awaywith His blessing, for Jesus'sake.
PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Hebrews 2:9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than
the angels, namely, Jesus, becauseofthe suffering of death crownedwith
glory and honor, so that by the grace of GodHe might taste death for
everyone. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek:ton de brachu ti par' aggelous elattomenon(RPPMSA)
blepomen (1PPAI) Iesoundia to pathema tou thanatou doce kai time
estephanomenon, (RPPMSA)hopos chHYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5485"arititheou huper
pantos geusetai (3SAMS)thanatou.
Amplified: But we are able to see Jesus,Who was ranked lowerthan the
angels for a little while, crownedwith glory and honor because ofHis
having suffered death, in order that by the grace (unmerited favor) of
God [to us sinners] He might experience death for every individual
person. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
Barclay:(Westminster Press)
NLT: What we do see is Jesus, who "for a little while was made lower
than the angels" andnow is "crownedwith glory and honor" because
he suffered death for us. Yes, by God's grace, Jesus tasteddeathfor
everyone in all the world. (NLT - Tyndale House)

Phillips: What we actually see is Jesus, afterbeing made temporarily
inferior to the angels (and so subject to pain and death), in order that he
should, in God's grace, taste deathfor every man, now crownedwith
glory and honour. (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: But Jesus, made for a little time lowerthan the angels with the
design that He by the grace ofGod should taste death for every man, we
see crownedas victor with glory and honor because ofthe suffering of
death.
Young's Literal: and him who was made some little less than
messengerswe see -- Jesus -- because ofthe suffering of the death, with
glory and honour having been crowned, that by the grace ofGod for
every one he might taste of death.
BUT WE DO SEE HIM WHO HAS BEEN MADE FOR A LITTLE WHILE
LOWER THAN THE ANGELS NAMELY, JESUS:blepomen (1PPAI) ton de
brachu ti garaggelous elattomenon(RPPMSA)Iesoun:
• Hebrews 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
• Hebrews 2:5-9 Our Glorious Destiny in Christ - StevenCole
• Hebrews 2:5-9 Recoveryof Man's Lost Destiny - John MacArthur
THE LAST ADAM
IN VIEW
But (term of contrast)- What is the writer contrasting? Whathas he just
statedabout the dominion of the first Adam? Now he contrasts the last Adam,
Jesus. So while we do not yet see everything under man's controlin this age,
we see Jesus Who is the key to restoring man's dominion over the earth.
More literally it could be rendered "And Him who was made some little less
than messengerswe see -- Jesus -- because ofthe suffering of the death, with
glory and honour having been crowned, that by the grace ofGod for every
one he might taste of death.
Click for comments by F B Meyeron Hebrews 2:9 (from The Way into the
Holiest)
Spurgeonexplains that…
The text begins with “but,” because it refers to some things which we do
not yet see, which are the objects of strong desire. “We do not yet see all
things subjected to him.” We do not as yet see Jesus acknowledgedas
King of kings by all mankind, and this causes us greatsorrow, for we

would gladly see Him crownedwith glory and honor in every corner of
the earth by everyone of womanborn. He is to many quite unknown, by
multitudes rejectedand despised, and by comparatively few is He
regardedwith reverence and love. Sights surround us which might well
make us cry with Jeremiah, “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes
a fountain of tears” (Jer 9:1), for blasphemy and rebuke, idolatry,
superstition, and unbelief prevail on every side. “But,” says the apostle,
“we see Jesus.”
We see not yet man the masterof everything, not even Christ, the model
man, the Head of all men. While He was here below, He was not a ruling
Lord, but a suffering Servant. He said to His disciples, “I am among you
as He that serveth.” Yet it is in Him that the dominion once given to
man is to be seenmost clearly displayed. Man does not yet rule the
world. Wild beasts defy him. Storms vanquish him. There are a
thousand things not at presentsubmissive to his control.
Here is the representative Man who is supreme over all: “We see Jesus,”
We see that by faith. We see Jesus,not merely as God, but as the God-
man exalted “far above all principality and power, and might, and
dominion.”
Oh, how glorious it is to realize our position in Christ, and to see how
He has lifted us up, not merely to the place froze which the first Adam
fell, but He has made us stand so securelythere that we shall not again
descendaround the ruins of the Fall! Glory be to His holy Name!
See (991)(blepo) means to see frequently in the sense of becoming aware of or
taking notice of something. Blepo denotes voluntary observation. The writer
uses it in the sense ofurging his readers to "take care" (see to it) later in the
letter writing…
Take care, brethren, lestthere should be in any one of you an evil,
unbelieving heart, in falling awayfrom the living God. (see note
Hebrews 3:12)
In another usage of blepo that somewhatparallels the sense ofthe use in
Hebrews 2:8 (note) the writer exhorts his readers to not forsake their…
own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. (see note
Hebrews 10:25) (Comment: What day do they "see" drawing nigh? The
return of Christ, at which time we will also "see"Him Who tasteddeath
for all).

In Hebrews 11 he uses blepo in the well known definition of "faith" (and
illustrates it with Noahbuilding the ark despite never having seenrain)
writing that…
Now faith is the assurance ofthings hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen(blepo)( see note Hebrews 1:1)
By faith Noah, being warnedby God about things not yet seen, (blepo)
in reverence prepared an ark for the salvationof his household, by
which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness
which is according to faith. (see note Hebrews 11:7)
Spurgeonon Jesus - He is not, indeed, in this text referring to any seeing of
the Lord by mortal eyes at all; he is speaking offaith. He means a spiritual
sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sight is very frequently used in Scripture as a
metaphor, an illustration, a symbol, to setforth what faith is. Faith is the eye
of the soul. It is the act of looking unto Jesus. In that act, by which we are
saved, we look unto him and are saved from the very ends of the earth. We
look to Him, and we find salvation. It does not say, “We cansee Jesus”—that
is true enough; the spiritual eye can see the Savior. Nor does it say, “We have
seenhim”—that also, glory be to God, is a delightful fact. We have seenthe
Lord, and we have rejoicedin seeing Him. Nor does the text say, “We shall see
him,” though this is our pride and our hope, that “wheneverhe is revealedwe
will be like him, because we will see him just as he is” (1 John 3:2). But the
text says, “We see Jesus.”We do see Him now and continually. This is the
common habit of the Christian. It is the element of his spiritual life; it is his
most delightful occupation;it is his constantpractice. We see Jesus,for we are
sure of His presence, we have unquestionable evidence of His existence, we
have an intelligent and intimate knowledge ofHis person. Our soulhas eyes
far strongerthan the dim optics of the body, and with these we actually see
Jesus.
Made lower (1642)(elattoo from from elattôn = less)means to lessen, to
decreasein status or rank, to make less. There are only three NT uses, the
present verse and the following two verses…
He must (dei = an obligation, not an option = it is necessary; present
tense - = continually!!!) increase, but I must(added by translators)
decrease(elattoo in the present tense = continually) (John 3:30)
Comment: John the Baptist gives us the "secret" to a powerful,
purposeful life. Observe the order - Jesus first and foremost. Why?
When we see Him in this manner, we have but one choice if we are
rightly relatedto Him - to bow, to fall on our face, to submit to His will

rather than our own. If we "invert" the order and it's us "decreasing",
the trap is that "we" become the focus rather than Jesus. And we can
begin to "try to decrease"by setting up rules, etc (and fall into the
subtle trap of legalism). The verb decreasedhere is in the middle voice,
indicates the specialinterest{reflexive = "I myself decreased"}John
had in his owndecrease, e.g., in authority and popularity.
But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower(elattoo)
than the angels, namely, Jesus, becauseofthe suffering of death
crownedwith glory and honor, that by the grace ofGod He might taste
death for everyone. (See note Hebrews 2:7)
We do not see man triumphant, but we do see Jesus. How? Mosesgives us a
clue…
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured,
as seeing Him who is unseen. (see note Hebrews 11:26)
Jesus (He 8:3 10:5 Ge 3:15 Isa 7:14 11:1 53:2-10 Ro 8:3 Ga 4:4 Php 2:7, 8, 9) -
as noted by Vincent "the use of the human name, Jesus, atthis point, is
significant. In this epistle that name usually furnishes the keyto the argument
of the passagein which it occurs. See notes Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 6:20;
Hebrews 12:2)
Also imagine yourself as a Jewishreaderand here for the first time you
encounter the name Jesus.
Wuest goes onto add that a Jewishreader"would sayto himself that the
name Jesus in the Greek text is just the transliteration of the Hebrew name
Jehoshua, the name of the God of Israelthat points to His distinctive nature as
the One who saves. The idea of Deity would come to his mind. But as he read
on, he would see incarnationin the words, “who was for a little time made
lowerthan the angels.” And that would leadhim to the Personwho in the
Gospels was spokenof as Jesus ofNazareth. Up to this point, the writer has
not mentioned the name Jesus to his Jewishreaders. He was wellaware of the
fact that they were in a frame of mind in which they would be hard to handle.
The controversycenteredaround the claims of Jesus ofNazareth to the
Messiahship. At one time some of these Jewishrecipients of this letter had
acknowledgedHim as such, with an intellectual assentto the fact, but not a
heart acceptanceofHis Personand Work. Now, they were drifting awayfrom
their former position. The writer up to this point had spokenof the Son as
superior to the prophets and the angels. Now, he suddenly says that the Son is
the Jehoshua ofthe Old Testamentand the Jesus ofNazarethof the New. The
vision of Jesus whichthe writer wishes to bring to his readers is that of the

Son incarnate, glorified, crownedwith glory and honor, seatedatthe right
hand of God, a position of glory and honor which the savedof the human race
will share with Him in His future Millennial glory and earth dominion. That is
the glorious ray of light which the writer brings into the dark picture of man’s
present estate. (Hebrews - Wuest's word studies from the Greek New
Testament)
BECAUSE OF THE SUFFERING OF DEATHCROWNEDWITH GLORY
AND HONOR: dia to pathema tou thanatou doxa kaitime estephanomenon
(RPPMSA):
• Ps 21:3, 4, 5 Ac 2:33 Rev 19:12
Because- term of explanation
Suffering (3804)(pathema from páscho = suffer. The suffix –ma = that which
is suffered, experience a sensation/sufferpain) describes whathappens to a
person and must be endured (misfortune, calamity). It is almost always plural
(sufferings).
Jesus was crownedwith glory and honour because ofthe suffering of death.
Christ’s exaltation and preeminence over the angels was wonthrough
humiliation and death.
Vincent writes that…
Exaltation was the logicalresult of Christ’s humiliation (comp. note
Philippians 2:9), not simply its recompense (comp. Matt. 23:12;Luke
14:11;18:14). He was glorified in humiliation. “The humiliation is only
the glory not yet begun.”
Christ's suffering was not an accidentbut foreknownand preordained by
God, Peterdeclaring to the Jews onhis first post-Pentecostsermonthat…
this Man, (Jesus)delivered up by the predetermined plan and
foreknowledge(prognosis)ofGod (God's sovereignty), you nailed to a
cross by the hands of godless menand put Him to death (Men's
responsibility). (Acts 2:23)
But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the
prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled. (Acts 3:18)

For truly in this city there were gatheredtogetheragainstThy holy
servant Jesus, whomThou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whateverThy
hand and Thy purpose predestined (proorizo) to occur. (Acts 4:27-28)
In the KJV of the RevelationJohn writes that Jesus was…
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (see note Revelation
13:8)
Death(2288)(thanatos)is literally a physical separationofthe soul from the
body. Every form of death in the NT is treated not as a natural process but
always as a destroying powerrelated to sin and its consequences. This is
certainly true in the case ofthe sinless God Man…
He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus the Son) Who knew no sin to be
sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness ofGodin
Him. (2 Cor 5:21)
Crowned(4737)(stephanoo from stephanos = crown- see word study)
literally meant to adorn one with an honorary wreath which served as the
"crown" ofthe victor in the Greek public games. It is fitting that crownedis
in the perfecttense which signifies the permanence of this crown.
This particular Greek verb emphasizes Christ finishing the course and
receiving the stephanos, the Victor's crown("oh death where is your
victory"). Paul's famous passagerecords this exaltation.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore also Godhighly exaltedHim, and bestowedon Him the name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus EVERYKNEE
SHOULD BOW, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (See notes Philippians 2:8; 2:9;
2:10; 2:11)
It follows that Christ is our example to follow "in His steps" that we receive a
stephanos!Peterexpands this idea writing…
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for
you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, (See note 1
Peter2:21)
Comment: Peteris speaking in contextto slaves and so illustrates his
words by citing Christ's example of suffering unjustly. By way of
application all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be

persecuted. The "cross"always precedesthe "crown" in God's
economy!
THAT BY THE GRACE OF GOD HE MIGHT TASTE DEATH FOR
EVERYONE:hopos chariti theou huper pantos geusetai(3SAMS)thanatou:
• By the grace:Jn 3:16 Ro 5:8,18 8:32 2Co 5:21 6:1 1Jn 4:9,10
• Taste:Mt 6:28 Mk 9:1 Lk 9:27 Jn 8:52
• For everyone: Jn 1:29 12:32 2Co 5:15 1Ti 2:6 1Jn2:2 Rev 5:9
A DESCRIPTION OF
AMAZING GRACE
Spurgeonsays He tastes death - Thus lifting man back into the place where he
first stoodso far as this matter of dominion is concerned. Oh, how glorious it
is to realize our position in Christ, and to see how He has lifted us up, not
merely to the place from which the first Adam fell, but He has made us stand
so securelythere that we shall not again descendamong the ruins of the Fall!
Glory be to His holy name!
That (3704)(hopos)means in order that (see discussionof terms of purpose or
result) and introduces a purpose clause which is pregnant with meaning. The
author puts Christ's death in behalf of (huper) or even better instead of (we
were guilty and condemned to die eternally) every man as the motive for His
incarnation and death on the Cross.
By (dia) defines the instrumentality or channel.
On the phrase by the grace ofGod, Octavius Winslow's words are so apropos
"Who delivered up Jesus to die? NotJudas, for money; not Pilate, for fear;
not the Jews, forenvy; but the Father, for love!
Grace (5485)(charis)(Click word study on charis) refers to God's unmerited
favor (Acrostic = God's Riches At Christ's Expense). Grace is costly. There is
no room for a philosophy or theologyof "cheapgrace". Gracemade it
possible for Jesus to taste death for you and for me!
As D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said "The ultimate test of our spirituality is the
measure of our amazement at the grace ofGod."
OswaldC. Hoffman rightly spoke ofthe Sonof God's love and the grace
bestowedon Him "Grace is love that gives, that loves the unlovely and the
unlovable."

Thomas Adams said that "Grace comes into the world as the morning sun
into the world; first a dawning, then a light; and at last the sun in his full and
excellentbrightness.'
Thomas Brooks - Grace is a ring of gold, and Christ is the sparkling diamond
in that ring.
Vincent writes that "Godmanifested His grace in giving Christ the
opportunity of tasting death for every man, and so abolishing death as a curse.
The same thought of glory in humiliation is expressedin John 1:14. To be
calledto the office of “apostle andhigh-priest of our confession”(Hebrews
3:1), an office which involved personalhumiliation and death, was to be
“crownedwith glory and honour,” and was a signaltokenof God’s favour.
Note John 12:23, 28; 13:31, 32, in which Jesus speaksofhis approaching
passionas itself his glorification. Compare Hebrews 3:3 (note). It was
desirable to show to Jews who were tempted to stumble at the doctrine of a
crucified Messiah(Gal. 3:13), that there was a glory in humiliation (Hebrews
2: Word Studies)
Francis Burkitt said it wellthat "Grace is glory begun, and glory is grace
consummated. Grace is glory in the bud, and glory is grace in the fruits.
Grace is the lowestdegree ofglory, and glory the highestdegree of grace.
GreatGod of wonders!
All Thy ways
Are matchless,
Godlike, and divine;
But the fair glories of Thy grace,
More Godlike and unrivalled shine.
Samuel Davies
Don't miss what the writer is saying here -- it is of profound theological(and
practical)importance in this life and the life to come. He is describing Jesus'
death in our place. We have all been born with Adam's "sin gene" and thus
we deserve to die eternally (Ro 5:12-note). Jesus, as the last (second)Adam,
was sent by His Fatherto die in our place (cf Jn 3:16), which is in its very
essencethe doctrine of substitutionary atonement. All the OT animal
sacrifices hadas one of their major purposes to show sinful men that they
needed a substitute to die in their place for their sins. Every OT sacrifice
pointed to the ultimate sacrifice ofthe Lamb of God at Calvary. When Jesus
tasteddeath, it was not without purpose. He tasteddeath so that those who
believe in His sacrificialdeath, His death in their place as their substitute, will
not have to taste eternal death! Yes, it says "for everyone" which might

suggestuniversalismto some, but the Bible is abundantly clearthat no one is
born againand enters into the Kingdom of God or heavenwithout believing in
Jesus (cf Acts 16:30-31HYPERLINK"/acts-16-commentary#16:30"+).
Christ's once and for all time payment has been made (See Paidin Full) and is
offered as a gift of grace (cf Ro 3:24HYPERLINK "/romans_324-26#3:24"+)
to all who would receive it, also by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-
9HYPERLINK "/ephesians_28-9#2:8"+). Have you receivedHis incredible
gift of eternal life? He died for you, but you must place your faith in Him to
have His perfectrighteousness imputed or reckonedto your "spiritual bank
account" (so to speak). When that "wire transfer" (so to speak)is made, the
Father looks atyou, and He is satisfiedthat the price has been Paid in Full,
because He sees that you are in covenantwith His Son. You are in Christ, safe
and secure eternally. To use an OT analogy, you are "safe in the Ark" (of
Christ), so that when the flood waters of God's final wrath come, you will be
rescuedfrom eternal punishment. O taste and see that the Lord is good(Ps
34:8), because He tasted death for you and for me!
RelatedResources:
• What is Substitutionary Atonement?
• What are the various theories on the atonement?
• What is the conceptof the vicarious atonement?
• What is the doctrine of penal substitution?
• What does it mean that Jesus took our place?
• What is the doctrine of substitution?
Taste (1089)(geuomai)means to taste with one's mouth and is a figure of
speechmeaning to "come to know" something, not with just to sample but to
partake fully. It was usedidiomatically to mean "to experience something to
the full". When used in this connection, it gives prominence to what is really
involved in dying. It means here that Jesus died, with all that that entails. It
even makes one thing of the "sourwine" the soldiers gave him.
Moffatt observedthat this taste was "a bitter experience, not a rapid sip."
Was it for crimes that I had done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
--Isaac Watts
(Play Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed?)

Spurgeonwrites of His tasting of death - Thus lifting man back into the place
where he first stoodso far as this matter of dominion is concerned.
Death(2288)(thanatos)it is worth reiterating signifies a physical separation
of the soul from the body. Every form of death in the NT is treatednot as a
natural process but always as a destroying powerrelated to sin and its
consequences.
As Puritan writer Stephen Charnock stated"The doctrine of the death of
Christ is the substance of the gospel."
As John Murray says "He humbled himself to the accurseddeath of the cross.
There were no lowerdepths possible, for the cross bespeaksthe whole curse of
God upon sin. It is humiliation inimitable, unrepeated, unrepeatable.
A. Sapir writes that "the Lord tasted death. A man may die in a moment, and
then he does not taste death. But all that was in death was concentratedin the
cup which the Lord Jesus Christ emptied on the cross. He was made a curse
for us; He was left alone with the powerof darkness. But though He emptied
the cup of wrath, though all the waves and billows of death went over Him, He
continued to live, to trust, to love, to pray. He gained the victory in the lowest
depth of His agony. (Expository Lectures on the Hebrews)
For (huper) means for the benefit of. It speaks ofsubstitution, in this context
of Christ's substitutionary death for everyone.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begottenSon, that
whoeverbelieves in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John
3:16)
For everyone - Note the truth that Jesus tastedof death for every man is clear
testimony to the universality of His atonement (in contrastto the aberrant
theologyof a "limited" atonementtaught by some).
As J. H. Vincent phrased it "He himself was forsakenthat none of his children
might ever need to utter his cry of loneliness.
He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to heaven,
Savedby his precious blood.
--Cecil Frances Alexander
Paul wrote that Messiah…
gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper
time. (1Ti6:2)

In Him (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of our trespasses,according to the riches of His grace, whichHe
lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight (See notes Ephesians 1:7;
1:8)
and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for
themselves, but for Him who died and rose againon their behalf. (2Cor
5:15)
Jesus Himself testified that…
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.
(John 12:32)
John spoke of the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice writing…
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, Behold, the Lamb
of God who takes awaythe sin of the world! (John 1:29)
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only,
but also for those of the whole world. (1John 2:2)
His death was in behalf of every one (not everything as the early Greek
theologians took it).
On the other hand, the writer of Hebrews is not teaching universalism (that
everyone will be saved) as is commonly taught in many liberal Protestant
pulpits today! To reiterate, what this truth teaches is the death of Christ was
sufficient for all, and efficient for some (for the "some" who come and drink
the waterof life by grace through faith).
Octavius Winslow's Devotional…
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; - Hebrews 2:9
There was an honoring, but not a glorifying of our humanity, when the
Son of God assumedit. Its union with the Deity-its fullness of the Spirit-
its spotless holiness-its deepknowledge of, and intimate fellowshipwith,
God-conspiredto invest it with a dignity and honor such as no creature
had ever before, or ever shall againattain. But not until its ascension
into heavenwas it glorified. Oh, through what humiliation did it pass,
what indignity did it endure, when below!What sinless weaknesses,
imperfections, and frailties clung to it! It hungered, it thirsted, it
labored, it sorrowed, it wept, it suffered, it bled, it died! "The poor
man's scorn, the rich man's ridicule," what indignities did it endure! It

was scourged, it was bruised, it was mocked, it was smitten, it was spit
upon, it was nailed to the tree, it was pierced, it was slain! Oh, what eye,
but that of faith, can, through all this degradation, behold the person of
the incarnate God?
But now "we see Jesus, who was made a little lowerthan the angels, for
the suffering of death, crownedwith glory and honor." Even after His
resurrection, it must be acknowledgedthat a change, approximating to
that state of glory, had already passedoverHim. So spiritualized was
He, that even His disciples, when they saw Him, knew Him not. What,
then, must be the glory that encircles Him now that He has passed
within His kingdom, and is exalted at the right hand of God, "farabove
all heavens, that He might fill all things"! John, during his banishment
at Patmos, was favoredwith a view of His glorified humanity, and thus
describes its dazzling appearance-"Isaw sevengoldencandlesticks;and
in the midst of the sevencandlesticks one like unto the Son of man,
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with
a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as
snow;and His eyes were as a flame of fire, and His feet like unto fine
brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of
many waters. And He had in His right hand sevenstars;and out of His
mouth went a sharp two-edgedsword;and His countenance was as the
sun shines in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as
dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fearnot; I
am the first and the last: I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold,
I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
Sublime description of the "gloryand honor" which now crown the
exalted humanity of our adorable Redeemer! Did the awe-strickenand
prostrate evangelistentertain any doubt of the glorious person who thus
appearedto him? That doubt must all have vanished the moment he felt
the "right hand" of Jesus laid upon Him, and heard His own familiar
voice saying unto him, "Fearnot." Oh, what a tangible evidence and
what a near view did he now have of the exaltedand glorified humanity
of his Lord! At that instant he saw Him to be divine, and he felt Him to
be human!
Yes! The very tabernacle of flesh in which He dwelt, the identical robe
of humanity that He wore, He carried up with Him into heaven, and sat
down with it upon the throne. There it is, highly exalted. There it is,
above angels, and higher than saints, in close affinity and eternalunion
with the Godhead. There it is, bathing itself in the "fullness of joy," and

drinking deeply of the satisfying "pleasures"whichare at God's "right
hand for evermore." Oh, what must be the holy delight which the
human soul of Jesus now experiences!Sin presses upon it no more;
sorrow beclouds it no more; the hidings of God's face distress it no
more; infirmity clings to it no more: it exults in the beams of God's
unveiled glory, and it swims in the oceanof His ineffable love. If the
vision upon Mount Tabor was so glorious-ifthe splendors there
encircling that form which yet had not passedthrough the scenes ofthe
crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension, were so overpowering-if
the attractions of that spot were so great, and the ecstasyof that
moment was so ravishing-what, oh, what must be the glory, the joy, the
bliss of heaven, where we shall no longersee Him "through a glass
darkly," but "as He is," and "face to face"!
F B Meyer writes (in The Call and Challenge of the Unseen)
THE FIERY ORDEALOF TEMPTATION
Heb. 4:15, 2:9-10
WHAT is God doing at this moment? He may be creating new worlds; may be
work-ing up into new and beautiful shapes what we should accountas waste
products; or may be preparing to unveil the new heavens and the new earth.
But there is one thing of which we may be sure: He is bringing many sons
unto glory! In order to help these to the uttermost, the Sonof God was
tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. It was realtemptation, for He
suffered being tempted; but being perfected through the terrible ordeal, He
has become the Author of eternal salvationto all who obey Him. Let us learn
His talisman of victory!
This bringing of many sons unto glory is a long and difficult process,for three
reasons:
(1) It is necessarythat we should be createdas free agents, able to say "No" as
well as "Yes."
(2) We have to choose betweenthe material world, which is so present and
very attractive to our senses, andthe eternal, spiritual, and unseen. But the
choice is inevitable if we are to really know things. We canonly know a thing
by contrastwith its opposite:
(3) There is a realm of evil spirits constantlyregarding us with envious hatred,
and bent on seducing us from the paths of goodnessand obedience. Theyare
adepts at their art.

If it be askedwhy we are placedin circumstances so perilous, so trying, the
answer, so far as we can formulate it, is that we are being testedwith a view to
the greatministries awaiting us in the next life. We are to be priests and
kings!There are vast spaces in the universe that may have to be evangelized
or ruled or influenced for righteousness. Itmay be that important spheres of
ministry are needing those to fill them who have learned the secretofvictory
over materialism on the one hand, and over the powerof Satan on the other.
We know that there was warin heavenbefore Satanand his angels were cast
down to earth, and there may be another, and yet another. Therefore earth
may be the school, the training-ground, the testing-place for the servants and
soldiers of the hereafter. This thought need not be in conflict with, the ideals
of rest and worship which we are wont to associatewith the future life.
Eternity will give opportunities for all I But, if it became Him of whom and
through whom are all things to make the Captain of their salvationperfect
through the suffering of temptation, it stands to reasonthat His comrades and
soldiers must pass through the same, that they may become more than
conquerors, and, having overcome, may sit with Him on His throne, as He
overcame and is set down with His Fatheron His throne.
The first temptation on recordis that of our first parents in Eden. It is a
masterpiece ofpsychology. The experience of all after-time has added nothing
to this marvellous analysis.
1. Temptation is more formidable when we are alone f Solitude is full of peril,
unless it is full of Christ!
2. Some outward object, or some fancy of the mind, attracts our attention. It
may be an apple, a face, a gratification, the lure of popularity, or money. The
longerwe look at it the strongerthe fascinationgrows. Some birds are
mesmerized by the fixed gaze of their foe at the footof the tree. The longer we
gaze at something forbidden, the strongerits mesmeric power. While we
continue to look, the tempter covers the walls of imagery with more definite
and attractive colors, and his ideals imperiously demand realization in act.
Our only hope is to tear ourselves awayfrom those basilisk eyes;to hasten
from the haunted chamber; to escape, as Josephdid in the house of Potiphar.
3. If we linger, many thoughts will gatherto ply us--all of them suggestedby
the tempter, who speaks through the voice of our own soul. These suggestions
will question the love and wisdom which have forbidden. "Perhaps we have
placed an exaggeratedinterpretation on our limitations and prohibitions. Are
they not rather arbitrary? Would it not be goodto know evil just once, that it
might be avoided ever after? Besides, is it not necessaryto know evil in order
to realize good? Perhaps it would be better to satisfythe inner craving for

satisfactionby one single act; then the hungry pack of wolves would at leastbe
silenced!After all, is it not probable that if one were to know the forbidden
thing it would be so much easierto warn others?" Such are the reasonings in
which the tempted shelter themselves, not realizing that the only certain way
of knowing evil is not by committing, but by resisting it.
4. Finally, we take the forbidden step, eat the/or-bidden fruit; the garment of
light which veiled our nakedness drops off; the tempter runs laughing down
the forestglade;a shadow falls on the sunshine, and a cold blast whistles in
the air. Our conscience cursesus, and we die, i.e. we cease to correspondto
our proper environments, which are God, purity, and obedience. Eve ought to
have dropped that apple like a burning coal, and hurried from the spot; but,
no; she lingered, ate, and gave to "her husband; so sin entered into the world;
and sin opened the door to pain, travail, sorrow, the loss of purity, the loss of
God's holy fellowship in the coolof the day, the fad-hag of the garden, and the
reign of death and the grave.
The Temptation of our Lord.
1. It came after the descentof the Spirit as a dove. We may always expectdeep
experience of the tempter to follow close on the highest moments of spiritual
exaltation. Where you have mountains you must look for valleys!
2. He was led of the Spirit to be tempted; clearly, then, temptation is not sin. A
holy nature might go through hell itself, assailedby clouds of demons, and
come out on the farther side untainted. So long as the waves ofevil break on
the outward bulwarks of the spirit they are innocuous. Jesus was tempted in
all points as we are, yet without sin.
3. The sword of the Spirit and the shield, againstwhich the darts of evil fall
blunted to the ground, are the words of the ever-blessedGod, and the upward
glances ofa steadfastfaith. Remember how Jesus said, "it is written "; "it is
written again." He is also the Pioneerand Perfectionoffaith!
4. Eachtemptation which He overcame seemedto give Him powerin the very
sphere in which it had sought His overthrow.
He was tempted to use His powerto satisfy His ownhunger; but, having
refused to use it selfishly, He was able to feed five thousand; and four
thousand men, besides womenand children.
He was tempted to castHimself from the wing of the temple to the dizzy depth
below, in order to attractattention to Himself; but having refused, He was
able to descendinto Hades, and then ascendto the Father's throne; to lay
down His life and take it againfor a world of sinners.

He was tempted to adopt Satan's method of gaining adherents by pandering
to their passions;but He refused, and adopted the opposite policy of falling
into the ground to die, of treading the winepress alone, of insisting that it is
not by yielding to passion, but by self-denial, self-sacrifice,and the Cross that
salvationis alone to be obtained. Therefore, a greatmultitude, which no man
can number, have washedtheir robes and made them white in His blood, and
stand before the throne.
Having, therefore, met temptation in the arena, and masteredit in its
threefold spheres--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life--Jesus is able to succorthem that are being tempted; and if they should
fail He is able to understand, because He has gone every step of the way
Himself, and is well acquainted with its perils. He can easilytrace the lost
sheepon the mountains, because He has The Fiery Ordealof Temptation
marked every pitfall and the lair of every enemy. He has lookedover the cliff-
brink to the bottom, where those who have missed the track "in the cloudy
and dark day" may be lying; and when He has found them He brings them
home on His shoulder rejoicing.
Our Own Temptations. We all have to pass through the wilderness of
temptation, the stones of which blister our feet, and the air is like a sirocco
breath in our faces.
1. All God's sons are tempted. As we have seen, we only know light by
darkness, sweetby bitter, health by disease, goodby evil resistedand
overcome.
"Oh, where is the sea?"the fishes said,
As they swam through the crystal waters blue! ""
They had never been out of it, and .so were in ignorance of that which had
always been their element.
2. The pressure of temptation is strictly limited. When Satan approachedGod
with regard to Job, he was on two occasions restrictedto a fixed barrier,
beyond which he might not go. In the case ofPeter also, whenhe obtained
permission to approachhim, he could only go so far as to sift him as wheat;he
might rid him of chaff, but not hurt anything essential. Rememberalso that
glorious announcement "There hath no temptation takenyou but such as man
can bear: but Godis faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape,that ye
may be able to endure it" (1 Cor. 10:13).

3. As you live nearGod the temptation gets deeperdown in your nature. You
are aware ofit in subtler forms and disguises. It attacks motives rather than
the outward habits and actions.
One summer afternoon, when I came down to the Auditorium at Northfield,
Massachusetts, Ifound Mr. Moody and his brother on the platform, and
betweenthem a young apple tree, just digged up and brought from the
neighboring orchard. There were about a thousand people in the audience.
When I reachedthe platform the following dialogue took place:
Mr. Moody to his brother: "Whathave you here?" "An apple tree," was the
reply. "Was it always an apple tree?"
"Oh no, it was a forestsapling, but we have inserted an apple graft."
Mr. Moody to me: "What does that make you think of?"
"You and I were forestsaplings," saidI, "with no hope of bearing fruit, but
the Jesus-nature has been graftedinto us by the Holy Spirit."
To his brother: "Does the forestsapling give you trouble?"
"Why, yes," said the gardener. "It is always sending out shoots under the
graft, which drain off the sap."
"What do you do with them?"
"We pinch them off with our finger and thumb; but they are always coming
out lowerdown the tree."
Then he turned to me and askedif there was anything like it in the spiritual
life, to which I replied: "It is a parable of our experience. The old self-life is
always sending out its shoots, and we can have no mercy on them; but if we
deal with the more superficialsins on the surface of our life, as we getolder
we realize their deeper appeals, and to the end of life shall be more and more
aware of their sinisterpower. The quick sensitivenessofage must not be
ignored or overlooked. It may be as strong a shootin the old forestsapling as
the manifestations of passionin earlierlife. Old men, for instance, may be
jealous of young ones, and quick to take offence if there are symptoms of their
being put aside."
4. Temptation is not in itself sin, but we cannot say, as our Saviour could,
"The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." We cannot
appropriate those last words. We know that all the inner gunpowder
magazines are not emptied. Therefore it is just as well, after a severe time of
testing, as the demons leave us, to ask ourselves if there has been some subtle

response in the depths of our nature it may be forgiven. We must not risk the
loss of ship or cargo because the combustion is so slow and so deep in the hold.
5. In the hour of temptation affirm your union with your all-victorious and
exalted Saviour! Stand in His victory! You are part of" His mystical Body;
take your rightful position! God has setHim at His own right hand in the
heavenlies;be sure to come down on your foe from the heights of the throne.
It is always easierto fight down from the mountain slope than up from the
lowland valleys. You can be more than a conqueror through Him that loved
you; but abide in Him.
6. Always ask the Saviour to hold the door on the inside. Satan will burst it
open againstyour feeble strength; but when Jesus stands within all hell will be
foiled. Though ten thousand demons are at you, in your patience possessyour
soul!
7. One other point is of immense importance. Be sure to claim the opposite
grace from Christ. The fact that an attack is being made at a certainposition
in your fortifications proves that you are weakestthere. When therefore the
tempter advances to the attack, and you are aware of his strategy, take
occasionto claim an accession of Christ's counterbalancing strength. When
tempted to quick temper, "Thy patience, Lord!" To harsh judgment, "Thy
gentleness, Lord!" To impurity, "Thy purity, Lord!"
"By all hells hosts withstood,
We all hews hosts o'erthrow;
And conquering ,till by Jesus" blood,
We on to victory go.'"
Sometimes temptation will come upon us in the hatred and opposition of man,
and we shall be strongly tempted to use force againstforce, strengthagainst
strength, and to employ weapons offlesh and blood. This is not the best. The
raging foe is best encounteredby the quiet faith and courage whichenable a
man to go boldly forward, not yielding, not daunted, not striking back. Hand
the conflictover to the Captain of your salvation. It is for you simply to stand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Love the truth more than all, and go on in the mighty power of God, as good
soldiers of Jesus Christ; in nothing daunted by your adversaries, but
witnessing a goodconfession, whetherman will bear or forbear. "Greater is
he who is in you than he that is in the world."
It may be that this earth on which we find ourselves is the Marathon or the
Waterloo of the universe. We are as villagers who were born on the site and
are implicated in the issues of the war. We are not merely spectators but

soldiers, and whether in single combat or in the advance of the whole line, it is
for us to play a noble part. Full often in the history of warthe achievements of
a single soldier have changedthe menace of defeatinto the shout of victory.
Think of David's conflictwith Goliath; of the three that held the bridge in the
brave days of old; and of the Guards at Waterloo!From their high seats the
overcomers, who in their mortal life fought in the greatconflict for the victory
of righteousness and truth, are watching us. Are they disappointed at our
handling of the matter? Are we worthy to call ourselves oftheir lineage, or to
be named in the same category? Fightworthily of them, whether in private
secretcombat, or in the line of advance, that you may not be ashamedat the
grand review!
Fight first againstthe wickedspirits that antagonize your own inner life.
Repeatthe exploits of David's mighties: of Benaiah, who slew a lion in a pit in
time of snow; of the three who broke through the Philistines' lines and drew
waterfrom Bethlehem's wellfor their king; of Amasai and his host, the least
of whom was equal to a hundred. Every lonely victory gained in your closet
and in your most secretsacredhour is hastening the victory of the entire
Church. Listen! Are not those the notes of the advancing conquering host?
Are not the armies of heavenalready thronging around the Victor on His
white horse?
It is high time to awake out of sleepI The perfecting of God's purpose is at
hand! The return of the Jews to Palestine;the budding of the fig tree; the
bankruptcy of politicians and statesmen;the threatened overthrow of
European civilization; the rise of Bolshevism;the new grouping of the nations
for war, notwithstanding the appeals of the League of Nations;the awful
havoc of Spiritism; the waning of love; all these are signs that we stand at the
junction of two ages. The one is dying in the sky, tinting it with the sunset; the
other is breaking in the East, and the cirrus cloudlets are beginning to burn.
Let us then put off the works ofdarkness and put on the armor of light, now
in the time of this mortal life, that when He shall come in His glorious majesty
to receive the kingdom of the world, we may rise to the life immortal, through
Him who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God,
blessedfor evermore!
"Fight the goodfight with all thy might,
Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally."
From - The Call and Challenge ofthe Unseen

J C Philpot has the following devotionalthoughts on Hebrews 2:9…
How wondrous that he who, as the Son of God, made the angels, should
be made inferior to them, and even need and receive their ministering
aid and support. O the depths of humiliation to which the blessed
Redeemerstooped, carrying down into their lowestpoint that pure,
spotless, holyhumanity which he had assumed into union with his
divine Personas the Son of God! And let us ever bear carefully in mind
that humiliation is not degradation. Our blessedLord "humbled
himself" by a voluntary act of surpassing grace;and it was no more in
the powerof men or circumstances to debase him of his glory than of
lying witnesses to strip him of his innocency. The spotless purity of his
sacredhumanity, as in union with his divine nature, and as filled with
and upheld by the Holy Spirit, preserved it from degradationin its
lowesthumiliation. The crownof thorns and the purple robe, the
mocking knee of the Roman soldierand the taunting scoffof the Jewish
priest, though they calledforth the grace, did not tarnish the glory of
our suffering Lord. His holy obedience to his Father's will in drinking
the bitter cup, his meek dignity amid the worst of insults, and his calm
resignationto all the weight of suffering which Godor man laid upon
him, all shone forth the more conspicuouslyunder every attempt to
dishonor him.
It is most sweetand blessedto look down, as it were, into some of those
depths of humiliation into which the Redeemersank, and to see that in
the lowestdepths of his soul travail, when he was poured out like water,
and his heart, broken with grief and sorrow, was meltedwithin him like
wax, he was, in the midst of all, the glorious Son of God, though then the
suffering Son of man; and that he was the same Jesus yesterdaywhen
hanging on the cross, as he is today at the right hand of his Father, and
will be forever in the realms of heavenly bliss. (J. C. Philpot. Daily
Words for Zion's Wayfarers)
STEVEN COLE
Our Glorious Destiny in Christ (Hebrews 2:5-9)

What would you do with a 19-year-oldChristian young man, who wrote in his
diary, “9. Resolved, To think much, on all occasions,ofmy dying, and of the
common circumstances whichattend death”? As you read through his 70
resolutions, you encounter things like, “7. Resolved, Neverto do any thing,
which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.” “17.
Resolved, That I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”
If that young man lived in a modern evangelicalhome, his parents would
probably be looking for a goodChristian psychologistto getthis kid’s focus
off of such morbid subjects. Maybe a prescription for Prozac would help!
That young man was Jonathan Edwards, who went on to become the great
revivalist preacher of the First Great Awakening (his resolutions are in The
Works of Jonathan Edwards [Bannerof Truth], 1:xx-xxi). His writings are still
immensely helpful to believers, 300 years later. Lest you think that he was a
gloomy, depressive type, I should point out that his first resolution was, in
part, “1. Resolved, ThatI willdowhatsoever I think to be most to the glory of
God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration;
without any considerationofthe time, whether now, or never so many
myriads of ages hence.” Edwards realized, evenas a teenager, thatto live for
God’s glory in light of death and eternity was to live for the greatestpersonal
good, profit, and pleasure.
It seems to me that modern evangelicalChristians are far too focusedon the
here and now. We’ve lostthe central focus that Edwards had, even as a
teenager, ofliving eachday in view of death and eternity. The modern view is,
“Heavenis a nice thought, but I want the goodlife now. If Jesus canhelp me
succeedin my family, in business, and in my personal emotionallife, that’s
what I want! I’ll think about heaven when I’m in my eighties.”
As a result of our shortsightedness, we don’t handle trials well. It is unknown
how we might handle persecution, should such arise againstthe church, but it
probably would free up a few seats onSunday mornings. I agree with John
Piper, who observed(in a tape on Charles Simeon; order from
www.desiringgod.org)overa decade ago that evangelicalpastors are too
emotionally fragile. If we catchstrong criticism or personalattacks, we’re
quick to bail out of the ministry. One main reasonfor this weaknessis that we
are not focusedon our glorious eternal destiny in Jesus Christ.
A main practicaltheme of the Letter to the Hebrews is endurance under
trials. The author frequently exhorts his readers, “Hold fast our confidence
and the boast of our hope firm until the end” (3:6; see also 3:14; 4:14; 6:11-

12). “Foryou have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of
God, you may receive what was promised” (10:36).
In order to give his readers the perspective to endure, the author focuses on
their eternal destiny in Christ. In 1:14, in his argument that Jesus is greater
than the angels, he pointed out that the angels serve “those who will inherit
salvation.” While we now possesssalvation(if we have trusted in Christ),
much of it is reservedfor eternity as our inheritance. As Paul puts it in
Romans 8:17-18, we are now children of God, “and if children, heirs also,
heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in
order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I considerthat the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be comparedwith the glory
that is to be revealedto us.” To endure our present sufferings, we must focus
on the glory ahead in Christ.
That is the train of thought in Hebrews 2:5-9. After his brief exhortation to
pay attention so that we do not drift (2:1-4), he comes back to deal with Jesus’
superiority over the angels. It is difficult to say whether the opening word,
“for,” links back to 1:14 or to the entire preceding argument. It is likely that
he was thinking of an objectionthat some of his Jewishreaders who were
wavering might have had. They may have been thinking, “If the Son of God is
greaterthan the angels, having obtained a more excellent name than they
(1:4), then how does this fit with His becoming a man, since men are lower
than the angels? Furthermore, how does this fit with His dying on the cross,
since angels never die? How then is Jesus superiorto the angels?”
The author responds by showing that God did not subject the world to come
to angels, but to man. To support this point, he cites from Psalm 8 (LXX). His
introduction of the quote, “one has testified somewhere,”does notmean that
he couldn’t remember where the quote was from. He cites it accurately(the
original probably omits the last part of 2:7, “and have appointed him over the
works of Your hands”). Rather, the author wants to emphasize that the quote
comes from God, rather than to draw attention to David, the human author.
Psalm8 reflects on the high position to which God appointed man, putting
him over all creation.
But, the author adds, “we do not yet see all things subjectedto him” (2:8). The
unstated but obvious event that overturned man’s high position was the fall.
Then, in verse 9, he shows that Jesus (the first use of His name in the book,
obviously emphasizing His humanity), because ofHis death on our behalf, was
crownedwith glory and honor. Thus He recoveredwhatman lost in the fall.
In the world to come, redeemed man will reign with Jesus as Godintended. So
the main idea is that…

Although God’s original high purpose for man was lost in the fall, it will be
recoveredthrough Jesus Christ.
Becausethe train of thought is not easyhere, I need to explain the text first.
Then I will apply it.
1. God’s original intent for man was that we rule over the earth (2:5-8a).
He makes two points here:
A. Man’s destiny is higher than that of the angels (2:5).
“ForHe did not subjectto angels the world to come, concerning which we are
speaking.” There is debate about the meaning of the phrase, “the world to
come.” The Greek word for “world” means “the inhabited earth.” Some take
the whole phrase to refer to the messianic age inauguratedby Christ at His
first coming. Others understand it to refer to the future Millennial Kingdom.
In the original creation, Godcreatedman in His image to subdue the earth
and rule over it (Gen. 1:26-28). Man lost that dominion to Satan in the fall, so
that he is now “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30;16:11; also, 2 Cor.
4:4; Eph. 2:2; 6:12; 1 John 5:19). At the cross, Jesusovercame Satan’s power
(John 12:31; 16:11). Christ’s victory will be finalized in His secondcoming
and kingdom rule. At the end of that 1,000-yearkingdom, Satan will be loosed
briefly for one final assaulton Christ’s kingdom, only to be defeatedand
judged forever(Rev. 20:7-10).
Thus I understand “the world to come” to refer primarily to the future
Millennial Kingdom. But there is currently a heavenly conflict for dominion
on earth. We participate in this conflictand reign with Christ as we conquer
the strongholds of Satanthrough spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10-20;Dan. 10).
To the extent that we live under Christ’s lordship, we experience a taste of His
kingdom rule now. But the full expressionof Christ’s kingdom awaits His
return, when He will reign over all the earth. Then we will reign with Him and
we will judge the angels (1 Cor. 6:3). So our ultimate destiny is higher than
that of the angels, since we will rule the world to come with Christ.
B. God’s original intent for us is described in Psalm 8 (2:6-8).
David was probably standing out under the night sky, gazing at the impressive
array of stars, when he marveled, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your
name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!”
As he considers his own smallness in light of the immensity of the universe, he
marvels, “Whatis man, that You remember him, or the sonof man that You
are concernedabout him?” David stands amazed as he realizes that, in spite

of man’s insignificance comparedto the vastuniverse, God has appointed
man below the angels to rule over creation.
The phrase, “a little lower than the angels,” is ambiguous. It canmean either
“by a small degree” or“for a short time.” The former sense fits the psalm as
applied to man, who lacks the supernatural powers of the angels. The latter
sense fits the psalm as applied to the Sonof Man, who laid aside His glory for
a short time to take on human flesh while on this earth (Philip E. Hughes, A
Commentaryon the Epistleto the Hebrews [Eerdmans], p. 85). He retains His
humanity forever, but when He ascended, He took back His glory (John 17:5;
Rev. 1:12-18).
As the Psalmunfolds, God createdman as the apex of His creation, giving him
greatglory and honor. He gave man a position of authority, to rule over all
other creatures. Adam and Eve were in a perfect environment, enjoying
perfect fellowshipwith their Creator. Man’s original high position of honor
shows how utterly inexcusable the fall was!What more could Adam and Eve
have wanted? What did they lack? Theyhad position, prestige, and power
over everything on earth! Yet, they wantedmore, to be like GodHimself.
After citing the line of the Psalm, “You have put all things in subjectionto his
feet,” the author of Hebrews explains, “Forin subjecting all things to him, He
left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things
subjectedto him” (2:8). The question is, does “him” refer to man or to Christ?
It probably refers to man in the first place, but also beyond man to Christ as
the representative Man(F. F. Bruce, Commentaryon the Epistleto the
Hebrews[Eerdmans], p. 37). As Bruce explains (ibid.),“The writer confesses
that it is not easyto recognize in man the being whom the psalmist describes
as ‘crowned with glory and honor’ and enjoying dominion overall the works
of the Creator’s hands.” But, as he will explain in verse 9, man’s failed
purpose is fulfilled in Christ. The author refers to that failed purpose in 2:8b:
2. God’s original intent for man was hindered by our fall into sin (2:8b).
The fall looms behind the words, “But we do not yet see all things subjectedto
him.” The author, then, is saying that Psalm8 had reference to the first
Adam, createdin God’s image to have dominion over His creation.
Everything without exceptionwas to be subjectto man. That was God’s
original intent, but that is not what we now see. Manfell through sin, thus
thwarting the fulfillment of everything in creationbeing subject to him.
As a result of the fall, God ordained that the earth would be cursed, so that
man would have to till it by the sweatof his brow (Gen. 3:17-19). Adam and
Eve were put out of the garden, losing their place of dominion. The human

race became subjectto sickness, injury, and death. The effects of sin infected
the entire race, so that Adam and Eve’s first son murdered his brother. Man
became subject to what we call “natural disasters,” suchas earthquakes,
volcanoes,floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, and extremes of heat
and cold.
John MacArthur describes it this way (The MacArthur New Testament
Commentary, Hebrews[Moody], p. 57):
Man lives in jeopardy every hour. Just at the height of professional
achievement, his brain may developa tumor, and he becomes animbecile.
Just at the brink of athletic fame, he may be injured and become a helpless
paralytic. He fights himself, he fights his fellowman, and he fights his earth.
Every day we read and hear of the distress of nations, of the impossibility of
agreementbetweenstatesmenin a world that languishes in political and social
conflict—notto mention economic hardship, health hazards, and military
threats. We hear the whine of pain from dumb animals and even see the
struggle of trees and crops againstdisease andinsects. Our many hospitals,
doctors, medicines, pesticides, insurance companies, fire and police
departments, funeral homes—allbear testimony to the cursedearth.
Even if we look beyond man as the reference in 2:8b, to Christ as the
representative Man, we do not yet see all things subjectedto Him. That idea
ties back to 1:13, where the Father says to the Son, “Sit at My right hand,
until I make Your enemies a footstoolfor Your feet.” That has not yet
happened. In God’s sovereignplan, He allows wickedmen and nations to rage
againstHis Messiahin this present age. But the day is coming when He “shall
break them with a rod of iron” and “shatterthem like earthenware” (Ps. 2:9).
This leads to the third link in the author’s thought:
3. God’s original intent for man will be realized through Jesus Christ (2:9).
The order of thought here follows Paul’s treatment of Jesus’humiliation and
glory in Philippians 2:5-11. There, Jesus who existedin the form of God
emptied Himself of His glory, took on the form of a servant, and became
obedient to death on a cross. Therefore,Godhighly exalted Him and bestowed
on Him the name that is above every name.
Here, Jesus, the eternal Son of God (Hebrews 1) humbled Himself by taking
on human flesh, becoming “a little lowerthan the angels.” But He didn’t stop
there. He submitted to “the suffering of death,” “so that by the grace of God
He might taste death for everyone.” As a result, He is now “crownedwith
glory and honor.” To “taste death” means not to nibble at it but, rather, to
experience death to the fullest degree. “Everyone” refers to all that will

experience the benefits of Christ’s death through faith, the “many sons”
whom He will bring to glory (2:10).
The risen Jesus chided the two men on the Emmaus Roadfor not believing in
all that the prophets had spoken. ThenHe said, “Was it not necessaryfor the
Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26). Peter
said that the prophets sought “to know what person or time the Spirit of
Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and
the glories to follow” (1 Pet. 1:11). In other words, Jesus’death was not
unforeseen. The Old Testamentprophets had predicted His death and after it,
His glory.
This was God’s ordained means of rescuing the fallen human race from the
ravages ofsin and restoring us to the place of His original intention. If we are
in Christ through faith, then we are seatedin the heavenly places in Him. If
He is now crowned with glory and honor, then we share that glory and honor,
although we do not yet see it (Heb. 2:7; Ps. 8:5). When He comes againto
reign in His kingdom, we will reign with Him! That is our glorious destiny in
Christ!
To recap, Christ’s incarnation and death did not in any way imply His
inferiority to angels. This is supported by the factthat God ordained that man
will rule angels in the world to come. Psalm 8 shows that this was God’s
original intent. That intent was hindered by the fall, but now has been
recoveredin the secondAdam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Through His death,
resurrection, exaltationon high, and coming againto reign, we will reign with
Him.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you now understand the flow of thought in this text. How should
we apply these verses practically?
First, weshould not let present trialscause us to neglect our great salvation,
because one daywe shall reign withChrist. A. W. Pink (An Exposition of
Hebrews[electronic ed.], Ephesians FourGroup: Escondido, CA, p. 97)said,
“The practical bearings of this verse on the Hebrews was:Continue to hold
fast your allegiance to Christ, for the time is coming when those who do so
shall enter into a glory surpassing that of the angels.”In other words, we need
to develop and maintain the eternalperspective of our glorious destiny in
Christ so that we can endure joyfully our present trials. If Jesus had to suffer
first and then enter His glory, so do we. God used suffering to perfect His Son
(2:10), and He does so with us. Jonathan Edwards was right: we should focus
often on the shortness of life in light of eternity.

Jesus was being seen

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