Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor… — The plain meaning of the text seems to be that Jesus was crowned with glory and honour with reference to the suffering of death, in order that by the grace or favour of God He might taste death for men. This rendering makes the crowning antecedent to death, a fact occurring in the earthly life of Jesus, an exaltation in the humiliation, a higher even in the lower, a glory consummated in heaven b,t begun even on earth. If I am met with the sceptical question, With what glory and honour can the man Jesus be said to have been crowned on earth? I reply, With just such glory and honour as are spoken of in the third and fifth chapters of this same Epistle: with the glory of a Moses and the honour of an Aaron; the glory of being the leader of the people out of Egypt into the promised land, that is, of being the "Captain of Salvation"; the honour of being the High Priest of men, procuring for them, through the sacrifice of Himself, life and blessedness. The glory and honour spoken of as conferred by Jesus may thus quite well be those connected with His appointment to the honourable and glorious office of Apostle and High Priest of our profession. This, accordingly, is the thought I find in this text: Jesus, "crowned for death," by being appointed to an office whereby His death, instead of being a mere personal experience of the common l-t, became a death for others, and a humiliation, was transmuted into a signal mark of Divine favour. This crowning had a twofold aspect and relation; a subjective and an objective side, a relation to the will of Christ and a relation to the will of God. It would not have been complete unless there had been both an act of self-devotion on the part of Christ and an act of sovereign appointment on the part of God. The subjective aspect is in abeyance here, though it is not forgotten in the Epistle; it receives full recognition in those places where it is taught that Christ's priestly offering was Himself. Here it is the objective Godward aspect that is emphasised, as appears from the remarkable expression, "by the grace of God," and from the line of thought contained in the following verse, to be hereafter considered. There was a subjective grace in Christ which made Him willing to sacrifice His individual life for the good of the whole, but there was also conferred on Him by His Father the signal favour that His life, freely given in self-sacrifice, had universal significance and value. Kindred to this famous text, understood as explained, is Christ's beatitude pronouncing the persecuted for righteousness happy; Paul's statement to the Philippian Church, "Unto you it is given as a favour (ἐχαρίσθη) in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake"; and Peter's declaration to the strangers scattered abroad, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth on you." Kindred also in import are all the texts in which Christ speaks of His approaching passion as His glorification, a mode of viewing the Passion very common in the Johannine report of our Lord's sayings. I only add to these citations a mere reference to the voices from heaven pronouncing Jesus God's beloved Son when He manifested at the Jordan and on the Mount of Transfiguration His willingness to endure suffering in connection with His Messianic vocation, and in connection therewith to the reflection occurring in the Second Epistle of Peter relating to the latter event, "He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." With these Divine voices stand in contrast the voices from hell uttered by Satan in the temptation. The God sent voices say in effect, "Thou art My beloved Son because Thou devotest Thyself to the arduous career of a Saviour, and I show My favour unto Thee by solemnly setting Thee apart to Thy high and holy office." The Satanic voices say, "Thou art the Son of God, it seems; use Thy privilege, then, for Thine own advantage." God shows His grace unto His Son by appointing Him to an office in which He will have an opportunity of doing a signal service to men at a great cost of suffering to Himself. Satan cannot conceive of Jesus being the Son of God at unless sonship carry along with it exemption from all arduous tasks and irksome hardships, provocations, and pains. God puts a stamp of Divinity on self-sacrifice, Satan associates Divinity with selfishness. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the crowning, as I conceive it, is an idea familiar to the New Testament writers. The only question that may legitimately be asked is, whether the thought I find in the text is relevant to the connection of thought in the passage, and serviceable to the purpose of the Epistle, that of instructing in Christian truth readers who needed to be again taught the merest elements of the Christian faith. To this question I can have little hesitation in giving an affirmative answer. Was it not desirable to show to men who stumbled at the humiliating circumstances of Christ's earthly lot. that there was not merely a glory coming after the humiliation, compensating for it, but a glory in the humiliation itself? This ethical instruction was much more urgently needed than a merely theological instruction as to the purpose and effect of Christ's exaltation to heaven, viz., that it made His death already endured have universal significance and value. The exaltation needed no apology, it spoke for itself; what was needed was to remove the stigma from the state of humiliation, and such, I cannot but think, is one of the leading aims of the Epistle. The blinded Jew said, "How dishonourable and shameful that death of Jesus; how hard to believe that He who endured it could be Messiah and God's well-beloved Son!" The writer replies, "Not disgrace, but grace, favour, honour, and glory do I see there; this career of suffering as one which it was honorable for Christ to pass through, and to which it well became the sovereign Lord to subject His Son. For while to taste death in itself was a humiliation to the Son of God, to taste it for others was indeed most glorious." It is a recommendation of the interpretation here advocated, that under it the crowning is not subsequent to the being made lower than angels, but, as in the Psalm, contemporaneous with it. It scarcely requires to be added that the glory in the humiliation is not exclusive of the glory after it. The full thesis of the Epistle on this theme is: "First lower, then higher; nay, a higher in the lower." (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. |
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