A group of tourists visiting a town in Rome called Tarsus. They walked by an old man sitting beside a fence and asked him, “Were any great men born in this village?” “Nope,” said the old man, “only babies.”
That’s the way all of us start, but how do people become truly great? How does anyone find any real significance in life? How can you and I make our lives actually count for something?
Hebrews 2:5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. If the angels are not in charge of the world, then who is?
Hebrews 2:6-8a But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor 8and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. (Psalm 8:4-6)
In other words, Man was in charge of the world. The human race was in control.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
God made man; God put him in charge of His creation. God gave him control/dominion over the world and everything in it. But that’s not what we see, is it?
Hebrews 2:8b Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
Man is not in control today. Most people can’t control even themselves, much less their environment and the world around them.
What happened? I’ll tell you what happened: Sin happened. God put Man in charge of His creation, but man abdicated that role and gave that role to Satan when he submitted to the Serpent in the Garden.
2 Corinthians 4:4 “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”
Let’s be clear: In all of this, God NEVER lost control of the earth. The Bible makes it very clear: Psalms 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it”
God NEVER lost control of the earth, but WE did. When man sinned, we lost our status, and our significance as rulers of this world, having become slaves of Satan.
“But,” Oh, I love the “buts” in the Bible. Man is out of control, BUT…
Hebrews 2:9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Man has given up control/dominion, but we see Jesus. We see Him, who became a little lower than the angels, just like us! We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In Hebrews chapter 1, we are urged to see Jesus, because He is fully God in a position higher than the angels. Here in chapter 2, we are urged to see Jesus, because He is fully man, who took a position a little lower than the angels for a little while.
Jesus became one of us, so He could regain control where Man lost control. As a man, Jesus never submitted to Satan like we did; He never lost control.
So, when we submit to Jesus, we regain our position/dominion and are no longer slaves to sin and Satan. Because, we are under Christ’s rule, who conquered Sin and Satan on the cross.
Hebrews 2:10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer/captain of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.
Jesus made perfect through suffering. That is not to say that Jesus was in any way imperfect. It’s that He could not be our Savior unless He became one of us.
Since Man sinned, only a man could pay the price for their sin. Jesus had to become one of us, so He could represent us on the cross and die in our place for our sin.
Hebrews 2:11a Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.
Jesus puts believers in the same class as He is! He elevates you and me who have trusted Him, makes us holy, and says we are in the same family.
Hebrews 2:11b-13 So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” (Psalms 22&Isaiah 8)
When Jesus became one of us, He set us apart as His siblings. He sanctified us as His brothers and sisters, giving us equal status with Him! That’s hard to believe because we know that we do NOT deserve it!
Those of us who have trusted Jesus share in His glory. It’s not because of what we have done; It’s because of what JESUS has done.
Hebrews 2:14-15 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Through His own death, Jesus destroyed the one who held the power of death, that is the devil. Jesus rendered the devil powerless, who used the fear of death to enslave people.
Now, because of Jesus’ death on the cross, those who put their faith in Him no longer need to fear death. That’s because through His death Jesus opened the way to heaven, and now death for the believer is but an entrance into glory!
1 Corinthians 15:55-58 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
A boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon when a bumblebee flew in the car window. The little boy, who was allergic to bee stings, was petrified. The father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it. The boy grew frantic as it buzzed by him. The father reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to his palm. There, stuck in his skin was the stinger of the bee. “Do you see this?” he asked. “You don’t need to be afraid anymore. I’ve taken the sting for you.”
In the same way, Jesus took away the sting of death for us on the cross. He died in our place for our sins. And now He holds His hand out to us, offering us eternal life. Look and see Jesus and the nail scars in His hands, the sting of death is gone!
Hebrews 2:16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
Galatians 3:7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.
Hebrews 2:17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
When Jesus became one of us, fully human in every way, He began to serve as our High Priest.
In Old Testament times, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest sacrificed an animal to pay for the people’s sins. However, those animal sacrifices were not sufficient to erase their sins, only cover their sins. That’s why they had to be offered year after year.
But, when Jesus became one of us and sacrificed Himself to pay for our sins, It was a once and for-all sacrifice that was sufficient to erase/cleanse us from all sin forever and ever!
Jesus’ sacrifice not only satisfied the righteous requirements of God’s Law but satisfied God’s holy anger against our sin which keeps us from ever having to pay for it ourselves.
Hebrews 2:18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Jesus is no “ivory tower” priest. He is a High Priest who knows what it’s like to suffer. He knows what it’s like to be tested/tempted, that’s why He can offer real help to us when we’re tested/tempted. (Matt. 4:1-11)
- Jesus who is higher than the angels became lower than the angels, Jesus became one of us, flesh and blood-fully human.
- Jesus sanctifies us, makes us Holy, and calls us His brothers and sisters.
- Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death.
- Jesus is our High Priest, who sacrificed Himself for our sins and who suffered so He can help those of us who suffer.
- Jesus became one of us so that we could be like Him!
1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
2 Corinthians 4:10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
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