The Son – Made Lower than the Angels
Hebrews 2:5-18
You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. [Hebrews 2:7-8]
This morning’s Scripture presents an additional side of the doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ: In Hebrews 1 the focus was on the Superior Person, Jesus the Son, fully God. “But to the Son, He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” [Heb 1:8]. In Hebrews 2 the focus is on Jesus the Son, fully Man, “who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death.” [Heb 2:9]
Why was the Son, who was and is and will always be God, made a little lower than the angels? Why did Jesus have to become the Perfect Man? It was because only God could become that perfect sacrifice that removes sin [ref. Heb 9:14, 10:1-4, 14, 17-18]. And it was Jesus, fully God, who became that Perfect Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world [ref John 1:29]. It was the Son’s fully man Person who tasted death for sinners.
It is therefore the Son’s precious blood that brings us into the Holy of Hollies [ref. Heb 9:12], behind the veil, where He then ministers to us. And it is there, in the Holiest of All, that believers mature and are conformed into the Son’s image.
This is a deep truth we must receive by faith. There is a genuine Sabbath rest that believers can enter when they, by faith, enter the Holy of Holies. It is there, behind the veil, that true rest and true maturation is experienced. The sad truth, however, is that many Christians never enter, and so they never rest; they do not mature. They never cease from their own works because they do not enter the rest in Christ behind the veil.
This is a Spiritual rendered truth that is overlooked and unreceived by many. Numerous believers, while saved, never enter God’s rest. They continue working, trying harder to prove to themselves and others how spiritual they are. They have subtly and unsuspectedly become a religious Pharisee overlooking divine grace and divine rest.
The Holy of Holies is indeed where rest is, and it is the One Place that the Christian matures, true maturity, not an outward show.
Let us make sure we enter in.
