Friday 26th
Hebrews 2:5-18
NIV (v9) – ‘But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.’
ESV (v9) – ‘But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.’
We have already mentioned in an earlier devotion the reference to Jesus being made a little lower than the angels, the writer citing from Psalm 8:4-6, in our text today he makes it abundantly clear why Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, why he became a man, or took on flesh, it was ‘so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.’
Death is the enemy of mankind; death is that which resulted from the disobedience and transgression of our fore parents Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. After placing them in the garden, God had given a clear command ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it,’ and with a very clear verdict should they not heed it, ‘lest you die.’ We know the story, they disobeyed and thus death became the curse that was placed upon mankind, spiritual death took place immediately and physical death would follow later. ‘”By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”’ (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:17)
As a result of man’s disobedience, it is appointed that every man and woman will die, and after death the judgement. But God was not willing to leave us to the fate of eternal death, he had a plan, and the plan involved his Son, it was a perfect plan, which would be carried out to perfection, no detail missed out and its success would mean that that which was lost in Eden would be restored at Calvary, life, eternal life. Spiritually and physically. But for it to happen someone would need to die, someone would need to taste death and come through it victoriously, and the one who would fit the bill was to be the eternal Son of God, for in being made a little lower than the angels he took on flesh, he became a man, this is why our understanding of the Virgin birth is so important, for he needed to become flesh miraculously and not through the seed of a man, so that he would be perfect (sinless) to be able to fulfil the perfect plan. And he lived a perfect life, to become the perfect sacrifice and thus by going to Calvary and into the grave he tasted death for every man and came through victorious. And we have the good news recorded for us by the apostle Paul, first in regard to being made spiritually alive, Ephesians 2:4-5 ‘But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved,’ and also physically as recorded in1 Corinthians 15, ‘For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive’, and ‘When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (vv21-22, 54-57)
Did you notice the link from Ephesians 2:5 and our text for today, ‘’The grace of God’, God’s plan perfected through Christ is all as a result of his amazing grace, God could have just left us in our sin, left us to languish forever in hell, but he didn’t, he chose instead to reach out and to extend his grace toward us, and he has done it through the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result Christ has tasted death for us, he has removed its sting and the day will come when all that have died ‘in Christ’ will be raised and we who are alive at the same time will be caught up to be forever with our heavenly Father and with our great Redeemer.
Tomorrow we will continue to see another outcome of Christ having tasted death, as we move to verses 14 and 15.