Jesus, the founder of our Salvation, how do those words resonate with you? Welcome back to our study of the book of Hebrews. We started chapter 2 last week and talked about one of the reasons why we shouldn’t neglect the salvation God has accomplished through Jesus. Because He is the Son of God and therefore has authority and preeminence over all creation, it is imperative that we heed His word lest we come under God’s discipline. Verses 5 through 9 give additional reasons why the people of God must not neglect this great salvation.
Jesus, The Founder Of Our Salvation
The Passage: Hebrews 2 v5-9
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,[a]
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Notes:
verse 5
The writer gives his readers another reason why they shouldn’t neglect this great salvation they have received. The reason lies in the fact that the world to come will not be subjected to the angels , as great as they are. And verses 6 and 7 tell us who will be in charge. We cannot have a limited view of the work of Christ on the cross. He atoned for the sins of the world and restored mankind fellowship with God, but that’s not the only thing that Jesus did. The salvation of God extends further than that.
verses 6-8
These verses tell us who the world to come will be subjected to – Man or mankind. This is a direct quotation from Psalm 8:4-6. When David was writing this psalm, he saw from afar what God was going to accomplish through Jesus. David understood that man in creation was lower or inferior to the angels. And we can see that in terms of our abilities, angels have supernatural abilities that we don’t have. Yet God has given man or mankind a greater privilege than the angels, we have been made steward of all that God has created, as we see in Genesis 1:26-31. When sin entered the world everything was disrupted , but God is going to restore all things including his mandate to mankind — having dominion over all He has created. We were created in His image, in order that we might reflect Him to His creation. Whose image is on you is the question? Creation should see the image of God through us , this is why we have been given dominion over His works.. But there is a problem, right now it seems as if man is subject to all kinds of sufferings. God’s promises seem to have failed – there is death , there is sickness , there is pain , there is suffering , there is fear , there is despair and hopelessness , and all these tend to make us think that God’s words have failed but that’s not true. And verse 9 solves the problem
verse 9
Jesus by taking on a human nature came to restore that which we lost because of Adam and Eve and their failure to obey the word of the Lord. We read this in Romans 8:20-21 ( the whole world has been subjected to frustration ). But God has glorified Jesus in His humanity because of His suffering on the cross. We mentioned that in chapter 1 ( after making purification for sins , He sat down at the right hand of God and He was given in his humanity the name that is above every name, the name Son and Lord). We talked about the time of His begetting in chapter 1. By the grace of God, Jesus tasted death on our behalf. When the sins of the whole world were poured upon Him, He said, ” My God My God why have you forsaken me?” At that very moment, the wrath of God was poured upon Him and He being the lamb of God satisfied the wrath of God and God accepted His sacrifice. And because God accepted His sacrifice, He was resurrected , hence the resurrection confirmed and proved that God was pleased with Him. So HE only tasted death , and He tasted it on our behalf so that we might not suffer death( spiritual death/ a perpetual separation from the grace of God) ourselves.
The implications of verse 9
God is now putting all Jesus enemies under His feet and at the last trumpet when His final enemy is defeated, we likewise shall reign with Him. He is the one that has made it possible for us. Right now , things may look desperate but only for a shot time, for Jesus has gained victory and God is faithful and we know how all things will end. So we should rejoice in that.
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My name is Tayib Salami and I started Tayibs.com for the sole purpose of exploring difficult questions about the Christian faith that most of us shy away from. In 2017, I entered a very dark time in my life and it’s only by the grace of the Living God that I’m still alive today. It led me to really go deeper in my faith and consider a myriad of questions that I never thought about asking myself or others before. Welcome and enjoy the ride with me.