Hebrews 2:8-9

Hebrews 2:8-9

Manhood crowned in Jesus.

The text brings before us a threefold sight.

I. Look 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? "All are yours and ye are Christ's." If so, what are most of us but servants, not lords, of earth and its goods? We fasten our very lives on them; we tremble at the bare thought of losing them; we give our best efforts to get them we say to the fine gold, "Thou art my confidence." We do not possess them, they possess us; and so, though materially we may have conquered the earth, spiritually the earth has conquered us. What then? Are we to abandon in despair our hopes for our fellows, and to smile with quiet incredulity at the rhapsodies of sanguine theorists like David? If we confine our new wealth yes. But there is more to see than the sad sights around us. Looking around us, we have indeed to acknowledge with plaintive emphasis, "We see not yet all things put under Him "; but looking up, we have to add with triumphant confidence that we speak of a fact which has a real bearing on our hopes for men, "we see Jesus."

II. So, secondly, look upwards to Jesus. Christ in glory appears to the author of this epistle to be the full realisation of the Psalmist's ideal. What does Scripture teach us to see in the exalted Lord? It sets before us (1) a perpetual manhood; (2) a corporeal manhood; (3) a transfigured manhood; (4) sovereign manhood.

III. Finally, then, look forward. Christ is the measure of man's capacities. We too shall be exalted above all creatures, far above all principality and power, even as Christ is Lord of angels. What that may include we can but dimly surmise. Nearness to God, knowledge of His heart and will, likeness to Christ, determine superiority among pure and spiritual beings. And Scripture, in many a hint and half-veiled promise, bids us believe that men who have been redeemed from their sins by the blood of Christ, and have made experience of departure and restoration, are set to be the exponents of a deeper knowledge of God to powers in heavenly places, and, standing nearest the throne, become the chorus leaders of new praises from lofty beings who have ever praised Him on immortal harps.

A. Maclaren, Sermons in Manchester, 2nd series, p. 170.

References: Hebrews 2:8 , Hebrews 2:9 . R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 273.Hebrews 2:9 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 777; vol. xxv., No. 1509; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. ii., p. 213.