The quotation in Hebrews 2:6b-8a is from Psalm 8, one of King David’s poems. David is writing about the special place that humanity occupies in the majestic creation of our great God. Human beings, says David, are quite an insignificant part of God’s great creation, so it is a wonder that God cares for them at all. But he not only cares for them, he has given them – you and me – a place of honour. Read Psalm 8 and you’ll see:
- God cares for us;
- God has given us a place of honour ‘a little lower than the heavenly beings’;
- He has crowned us ‘with glory and honour’;
- We are to be ‘rulers over the works’ of God’s hand;
- All the rest of creation is made subject to mankind.
- The problem is – as the Hebrews’ writer says –
‘At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 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.’ (Hebrews 2:8b-9)
So some great and terrible event has occurred to create the difference between what God had originally planned for us and the everyday reality we experience. We know that that event was when Adam and Eve sinned and brought sin, disgrace and ruin to us all. But the good news is that the Lord Jesus broke the power of the curse that was on mankind, by his suffering, death and resurrection. The eternal Son of God, who made the angels, became a man and lived ‘a little lower than the angels’ so that he could ‘taste death for everyone’ and reverse the situation. He is now crowned with glory and honour and so are all the new mankind – people like you and me – who belong to the Lord Jesus.
David Webster, The Church of God in Liverpool
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