5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.
6 But one has testified somewhere, saying, “
What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
7 “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor,
And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
The preacher begins this section of his sermon by returning the minds of his hears back to 1:14, “Are they not all ministering spirits”, after taking a break from his main theme to exhort believers to “pay much closer attention” to the message they have heard lest they “drift away from it.” He uses these verses to transition our attention from the exulted Son to the incarnated Jesus. God “did not subject to angels the world to come”, but He did to the Son who sits at His right hand. But before the exultation, “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels”. Hebrews 2:9 tells us that this one made lower than the angels for a “little while” refers to Jesus in His incarnation. It is in the incarnation that Jesus suffered “death crowned with glory and honor”. This therefore provides for the perfect transition from the glorified Son who is the heir of all things, creator of the world, worshipped by the angels, the eternal God who has been exulted above the cosmos for an eternal reign at the right had of God to the lowly Jesus who came to us as man proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom only to suffer death that “He might taste death for everyone.”
The difficulty of this passage comes from the seeming contradiction of Hebrews 1:13 and its use of Psalm of 110:1, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet” and its future accomplishment and Hebrews 2:8 and its use of Psalm 8:6, “You have put all things in subjection under His feet” as an accomplished event in history. The preacher however takes these two texts and deals with the tension between the “now” and the “not yet”. Hebrews 2:8 is completely correct when it says that Christ now reigns over the cosmos as the one crowned with glory and honor. All things have been put under His subjection, but “we do not yet see all things subjected to Him” so that God is still at work making His “enemies a footstool” for His feet.
This is referred to as “the inaugurated rule of Christ”, where Christ is reigning, but the full experience of the kingdom will not be known till the final consummation when He restores all things. Until then the reality of His reign must be received by faith knowing that in the end we will see Him as He is. Calvin puts this beautifully in his commentary on Hebrews,
“As Christ carries on war continually with various enemies, it is doubtless evident that he has no quiet possession of his kingdom. He is not, however, under the necessity of waging war; but it happens through his will that his enemies are not to be subdued till the last day, in order that we may be tried and proved by fresh exercises.”
Thus, Christ has all under His subjection, but allows His enemies to battle against Him for His purposes.
This passage of Scripture gives further encouragement to the believers who might be struggling with their hope. God did not subject the world to angels. In the beginning He subjected it to man, as Psalm 8 shows, but because of the sin of Adam it was removed from man. It is only by the second Adam, the Son, who came incarnate and tasted death for all men, baring the sins of men, that subjection might be restored, but not to all men, only the One who was obedient. Thus Christ is our example of overcoming trials and afflictions and the evidence of our hope for us who follow. Though the Son’s realm was heaven from the beginning, He chose to be made lower than the angels for a little while for the salvation of men and now reigns over all creation.
He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)
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