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The apostle proceeds with his argument broken off at end of the first chapter. The first chapter deals with the Deity of Christ; the second with his humanity; thus the Epistle is based on the fact of the dual nature of our Lord. Having spoken of the Godhead of Christ, he has to meet the objection which presented itself with great force to the Hebrews. Why should this glorious Being stoop to the humiliation of Jesus of Nazareth? To the Jew, Christ crucified was a stumbling-block (see John 10:30-33; John 12:32-34). The writer needs to justify the Incarnation. (Observe, he does not attempt to prove the real humanity of Jesus. Clearly the Hebrews did not share subsequent doubts on this point, for there is not a word in the Epistle - though it is based on the fact - to prove that Jesus was man; it is assumed, than which there can be no stronger evidence of it, for if the Hebrews, Christ's contemporaries cherished no doubts with regard to it, the later doubts of others are worth nothing.) In justifying the Incarnation, the writer uses in this chapter four progressive arguments, closely woven together yet distinct. The first is in this passage. Subject - The dignity of human nature shows that the Incarnation was not degrading to the Godhead. True, Christ did assume human nature, and that was an act of infinite condescension; but there was no degradation in it, for consider how sublime this nature is in God's estimate.

I. THE DIGNITY OF HUMAN NATURE AND MAN'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN IT. (Vers. 5 - 8.) (Observe marginal readings in Revised Version, ver. 5, "the inhabited earth;" ver. 7," for a little while.") In proof of this dignity, the writer quotes from their own Scriptures. (Observe that this Epistle is very remarkable for its quotations from the Old Testament. Many of the Epistles addressed to Gentile believers have no quotations, but in this they are found in almost every page. To the Jew the Scriptures were a final authority, so in writing to them each successive step of the argument is based thereon.) He bids them, therefore, read in the eighth psalm how lofty is God's idea with regard to man. The picture drawn there may be ideal, may never have been reached; but it is God's idea, and being so, some day it shall be fulfilled. What, then, is the proper dignity of humanity? what the place in the universe to be filled by this wondrous being, man, who in himself, unlike God's other works, is a combination of the material and the spiritual? The psalm specifies in token of man's greatness:

1. His lordship over creation. "Thou didst set him over the works of thy hands; thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet." Man is not one of innumerable beings made to people the earth; not a link in an endless series, as though up to him all previous things have led, and from him others higher still shall be evolved. The world was made for him, made and furnished (see Genesis 1.) to be his home, the scene of his education, the means of his discipline, the minister to his happiness. Man is greater, in God's sight, than all the worlds; he was made to be a crowned and sceptered king, with them for his servants; he was made in God's image to have dominion over them all.

2. His fellowship with God. "Man, thou art mindful of him... the son of man, thou visitest him!" God rejoices in all the works of his hands, but how different his feeling towards men! They are to have communion with him, which involves similarity of nature; they are taught to pray, "Our Father, which art in heaven." The parable of the prodigal son is the picture of his attitude with regard to them - his sorrow, and joy, and welcome, and fellowship, and care. How great that nature of which this is true!

3. His destroy to be higher than the angels. "Thou madest him, for a little while, lower than the angels; ... thou didst put all things... under his feet." Nothing is left out; angels, principalities, powers, are included. How great the angels; how sublime the idea Scripture gives of them! But man is only made lower than they for a little while. He is the son, they are the servants.

4. His redemption secured at so great a price. "Jesus... should taste death for every man." How great is he of whom Christ could say, "I will give my heavenly crown for him; I will pass through the humiliation of a sorrowful human life for him; I will bow my head in accursed death for him; I will forfeit my Father's favor for him!" But this glorious dignity is not yet reached. "But now we see not yet all things subjected to him." If we compare the eighth psalm with the actual condition of things, it reads like a satire. Traces of man's greatness are seen in his moral nature and achievements; but when we behold the poverty, ignorance, disease, misery, crime, sin, which abound under the sun, and compare them with the magnificent ideal of Scripture, the distance of the actual from the ideal seems too great to be destroyed.

II. THE ASSUMPTION OF HUMAN NATURE BY CUBIST, AND ITS PERFECTION REACHED IN HIM. "But we behold him who hath been made for a little while lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor." This ideal psalm is realized in Christ; all that man was to be we see in Jesus.

1. Christ assumed that nature which is lower than the angels. Mark the contrast between this and the substance of the first chapter. This is the first chapter: Christ "so much better than the angels." This is the second: "Jesus, made for a little while lower than the angels." How great the contrast between the angels who heralded his birth, and the feeble babe; between the angels who ministered to him, and the lonely Man worn with conflict; between the angels who strengthened him in Gethsemane, and the Man of sorrows, whose sweat was as it were great drops of blood; between the angels who kept his tomb, and that lifeless body! Think of the Lord of angels needing angelic ministry!

"His earnest prayer, his deepening groans,
Were heard before angelic thrones;
Amazement wrapped the sky!
Go, strengthen Christ,' the Father said:
Th' astonished seraph bowed his head,
And left the realms on high."

2. Christ has lifted that nature far higher than the angels. "We behold him crowned with glory and honor." When Christ returned to his native position, he retained his human nature for evermore; as when he trod the streets of Jerusalem and hills of Galilee - " this same Jesus." Exalted to the right hand of the Father, he is still "the Man," the man wearing his human body, that body spiritual in the like of which Moses and Elias appeared at the Transfiguration, and the saints will be enwrapped at the resurrection. It is thus, as muff, he is exalted King over all. To him, as man, every knee doth bow in heaven, and shall bow on earth; on his head, as man, are many crowns; in his human hand rests the sceptre which rules the universe; and before him, as man, the hosts of heaven continually do cry," Thou art the King of glory, O Christ."

3. Christ's ability for this was due to the suffering of death. Christ inherits the throne of heaven as man, as the meritorious reward of his sufferings. So Isaiah (Isaiah 53:11, 12); so Paul (Philippians 2:6-11). What Christ is in his mediatorial capacity he is because he died; apart from his death, he would have no power to be or do anything for man. Man has failed to be what God meant him to be; Christ has become it all; and through the suffering of death retains it all for evermore.

III. THE PERFECTION OF HUMAN NATURE IN CHRIST IS THE PLEDGE OF ITS PERFECTION IN his PEOPLE. That is evidently the idea here: "We see not yet all things subjected to [man], but we behold Jesus... crowned with glory and honor." The truth is that whereas we are groaning in our failure to reach the eighth-psalm ideal, Christ has attained that sublimity which human nature ought to reach; and through him we shall one day attain it too. The littleness under which we labor we shall shake off, and rise to that grand summit in which there will be only One above us, God over all; the pledge of this being that that summit is already reached by Christ as man.

1. The perfection of human nature in Christ is the token of the complete removal of man's disabilities. God was unable to fulfill his ideal for man, because sin forfeited exaltation and incurred abasement. Christ undertook, as man's Representative, to remove the sin by an atoning death. The exaltation of Jesus from the sepulcher to the throne was the proof that the atonement was sufficient. Now the hindrance to God fulfilling his purpose for man is removed: the eighth-psalm ideal is that purpose; that ideal will, therefore, be attained.

2. The perfection of human nature in Christ is the assurance of all power in the hands of the Mediator. Christ raised to supreme authority as God-Man, means that all the authority he possesses is to be used in his redemptive work. Then, depend upon it, he will redeem perfectly; he will save up to the highest point of salvation of which man is capable, and. which even God desires. There can be no fear of his people reaching the eighth-psalm ideal when they know that on purpose to raise them to it, Christ, in the nature and character of Savior, has been placed on the highest throne.

3. The perfection of human nature in Christ is the promise of perfection to all who are to be made like him. His people are to be "glorified together" with him, sit with him on his throne, become like him when they see him. See here what Christ is; learn thereby what man in him shall be; for Christ in glory is but the First fruits of perfected humanity. - C.N.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

WEB: For he didn't subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.