Ebrei 2:6-8

DISCOURSE: 2274
CHRIST’S SUPERIORITY TO ANGELS

Ebrei 2:6. One in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.

OUR blessed Lord has said, “Search the Scriptures; for they are they which testify of me.” Hence it appears, that the Jews were highly privileged; because, if they would only look up to God for the illumination of their minds, they had within their reach an infallible directory in their way to heaven. But we are still more highly privileged, in that we have a multitude of passages pointed out to us by men, who were themselves inspired of God to discern and to explain the meaning of them.

If we had been left to ourselves, we might have doubted whether our interpretations of the Scripture were just: but, when holy men of God are moved by the Holy Ghost, to open and apply those very words to Christ, which the prophets, under the influence of the same Spirit, spake of him, we proceed without any fear of error or delusion.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the types and prophecies of the Old Testament are more fully opened to us, than in any other part of the apostolic writings.

That epistle was evidently written on purpose to point out the connexion between the Jewish and Christian dispensations; to shew their perfect correspondence with each other, and the completion of Judaism in Christianity. It would be profitable to trace this through the whole epistle: but we must content ourselves with noticing only the passage before us.
Let us then consider,

I. The testimony here adduced—

The manner in which the Apostle speaks of this passage of Holy Writ is somewhat remarkable: at first it appears as if he himself did not recollect the author, or the part of Scripture where the passage occurred; but the fact is, that the Jews were so conversant with their Scriptures, as not to need any thing more than the mere citation of the words: the writer of them, and the place, were sufficiently known to all.

What its import is, we can be at no loss to determine.
[David, contemplating the starry heavens, and the perfections of God as displayed in them, breaks out into a devout acknowledgment of the condescension of God, in noticing so poor and abject a creature as man; and his goodness in having subjected to man the whole animal creation [Note: Salmi 8:3.

]. This is the primary meaning of the text: and, if we had not been instructed by God himself to look for any thing further, we should have rested in that as its full and only import. But we know on infallible authority, that there was a prophetic meaning in the psalm; and that it referred to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Having this clew given us, we find, that the mystical sense of the passage is, if we may so speak, by far the most literal.

The words, in fact, are inexplicable, as referred to man, whether in his innocent or fallen state: for Adam was not reduced from a higher state in order to be made lower than the angels [Note: ἠλάττωσας conveys this idea.]: nor is man, in his fallen state, “a little lower than they, but a great deal lower. Moreover, fallen man was not crowned with glory and honour;” nor are all the creatures in a state of subjection to him.

The very words themselves therefore lead our thoughts to Christ, in whom alone they ever received their accomplishment: and the manner in which the Apostle quotes them, shews, that the Jews themselves had interpreted them in that very sense in which he quoted them: for he is arguing with the Jews, to shew them the superiority of Christ to Moses, their great lawgiver, and to the angels, by whose ministration their law was given: and, if he had quoted passages from their writings which did not bear directly on his point, or had put a construction upon them which had not been generally received, they would have denied his interpretation of the passages he adduced: and consequently his whole argument would have immediately fallen to the ground.

If any thing further were wanted to shew that the testimony is here properly adduced, we might observe, that our blessed Lord himself quotes the very words before the text as applicable to himself, and as being generally understood to refer to the Messiah [Note: Salmi 2:2. with Matteo 21:15.]

Having ascertained the meaning of the testimony, let us consider,

II.

The points established by it—

Some interpreters understand the text as quoted only in an accommodated sense: but the words themselves, and the scope of the Apostle’s argument, prove that we must understand it as a prophecy that has been strictly and literally fulfilled. In this view it contains much respecting the Lord Jesus: It proves,

I. The dignity of his person—

[The scope of the Apostle’s argument in the two first Chapter s of this epistle is, to shew that Christ is superior to the heavenly hosts, and “hath by inheritance a more excellent name than they.” Him the Father acknowledges as his only-begotten Son [Note: Ebrei 1:5.]: and commands all the angels to adore him [Note: Ebrei 1:6.

]. Him he addresses as the Creator and Governor of all things, the eternal, immutable Jehovah [Note: Ebrei 1:8.], to whom all adverse powers shall assuredly be subjected [Note: Ebrei 1:13.]: to whom also the Christian dispensation (“of which St.

Paul speaks,” and which he designated as the “world to come,”) is altogether committed, that he may order every thing relating to it according to his sovereign will and pleasure [Note: Ebrei 2:5.]. As for angels, he has never spoken such things concerning them, or committed such power to them [Note: Ebrei 2:5.

]. They are the fellow-servants of the saints [Note: Apocalisse 19:10; Apocalisse 22:9.], united with them as part of the Church over which Christ presides [Note: Efesini 1:10.

], and appointed to minister unto them in the capacity of servants [Note: Ebrei 1:14.]. However venerable therefore they are in themselves, and whatever honour God put upon them in the giving of the law, they are infinitely below the Lord Jesus, who is their Creator, their Governor, and their God. In his human nature he was “made a little lower than they;” but in his pre-existent nature he was infinitely above them. O that we may have worthy conceptions of his Divine Majesty, and ever be ready to address him in the words of Thomas, “My Lord, and my God!”]

2. The truth of his Messiahship—

[Here is a prophecy that must receive an accomplishment: there must be a person superior to the angels in his own nature, and made lower than they by the assumption of our nature. He must submit to this humiliation “for the purpose of suffering death,” as the penalty due to the sins of men. Having “tasted death for every man,” he must be raised, and “crowned with glory and honour,” and must “have all things in heaven, earth, and hell, put under his feet.

” Now then we ask, In whom has this, or any part of it, been fulfilled? Who has experienced either the humiliation or the exaltation which are here predicted? That Jesus has fulfilled the prophecy, we know: for, “being in the form of God, and accounting it no robbery to be equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant: and having submitted to death, even the death of the cross, he has been exalted, and has had a name given him above every name, that every knee should bow to him, and every tongue confess him to be the Lord, to the glory of God the Father [Note: Filippesi 2:6.

where ἐκένωσε in ver. 7. corresponds with ἠλάττωσας in the text.].” Is there any one else of whom these things, or any one of them, can be spoken? Assuredly not: “But we see Jesus” thus humbled, and thus exalted [Note: ver. 9.]: and, consequently, Jesus is, beyond all doubt, “the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”]

3. The certainty of his triumphs—

[Quando era sulla terra “fu crocifisso per debolezza; ma ora vive della potenza di Dio». Non solo è «coronato di gloria e di onore», come lo saranno i suoi seguaci, ma «è posto molto al di sopra di ogni principato e potenza, potenza e dominio, e ogni nome che è nominato, non solo in questo mondo, ma anche in ciò che deve venire: ed essendo costituito Capo di ogni cosa alla Chiesa, la riempie tutto in tutto”, fornendo ad ogni suo membro luce e vita, come fa il sole nel mondo materiale [Nota: Efesini 1:20 .

]. L'Apostolo infatti giustamente osserva: «Non vediamo ancora tutte le cose poste sotto di lui [Nota: ver. 8.]”. Ma vediamo abbastanza per assicurarci che tutte le cose a tempo debito gli saranno poste sotto. Guarda in quale stato fu ridotto lui stesso, quando giaceva sigillato e custodito nella tomba silenziosa! ma si alzò trionfante, salì al cielo e “siede come Re sul santo monte di Sion di Dio”. Guarda con quanta rapidità ha trionfato su tutte le concupiscenze e pregiudizi dell'umanità e ha sottomesso milioni di persone all'obbedienza della fede; e questo per mezzo di pochi poveri pescatori! Guarda come porta avanti le sue vittorie ancora ogni giorno attraverso il mondo! In effetti, ogni santo è per lui un testimone vivente e una promessa al mondo che nulla nell'universo resisterà finalmente al suo potere.]

Sicuramente questo argomento è completo,
1.

Di consolazione al devoto -

[Sei debole; ei tuoi nemici sono potenti: ma questo è motivo di sconforto. Se un angelo fosse stato posto a capo della Chiesa, potresti avere paura [Nota: Vedi Esodo 32:34 ; Esodo 33:2 .]; ma sotto la cura di Gesù non hai nulla da temere.

Pensate tra voi, il Signore Gesù non possiede «ogni potere, sia in cielo che in terra?». Non vi è «una pienezza custodita in lui», apposta perché «da essa possiate ricevere grazia su grazia?». Non abita forse in lui “tutta la pienezza della divinità?” e non ha detto: "Ti basta la mia grazia?" Non temere, allora; ma «sii forte nella grazia che è in Cristo Gesù.

“Adotta il linguaggio trionfante che il profeta ti ha messo in bocca; e "dì: Nel Signore ho giustizia e forza". Non temere, dico; poiché "per la sua forza sarete in grado di fare ogni cosa" e "sii più che vincitori per mezzo di colui che ti ha amato".]

2. Di terrore per gli empi:

[Poiché non vedi molte interposizioni di segnale della sua potenza, pensi di poterti ribellare impunemente contro di lui. Ma guarda se questa profezia non si è già adempiuta così lontano da darti motivo di aspettarti il ​​suo pieno compimento! Dio ha persino “giurato che ogni ginocchio si piegherà davanti a Gesù [Nota: Isaia 45:23 .

con Romani 14:11 .]:” e, se non ti sottometterai allo scettro della sua grazia, egli “ti farà a pezzi con una verga di ferro [Nota: Salmi 2:9 .]”. Né è sufficiente una semplice sottomissione nominale: dovete mettervi volontariamente e senza riserve « sotto i suoi piedi », consapevoli del vostro infelice deserto, e pronti a giustificarlo, se egli «eserciterà su di voi la ferocia della sua ira .

“Devi essere tutto e tutto suo, in ogni membro del tuo corpo e in ogni facoltà della tua anima. Oh, non ingannatevi con una sottomissione simulata o parziale! — — — ma “bacia il Figlio”: bacialo in segno dell'ardore del tuo affetto e della gioia che provi nel vivere alla sua gloria. Questa è la vostra vera “sapienza, anche se siete re e giudici della terra [Nota: Salmi 2:10 .

]”. Egli è quella «pietra che i costruttori rifiutarono, e che è divenuta capo d'angolo:» se edificate su di lui, troverete in lui «un fondamento sicuro»; ma se lo respingi, “cadrà su di te e ti ridurrà in polvere [Nota: Luca 20:17 .].”]