Hebrews has spent its opening movement establishing the superiority of the Son and the seriousness of the salvation announced through Him.
God has spoken in the Son through whom He made the ages. The angels are glorious servants, but they worship the Son and are sent to minister according to God’s purposes. The word associated with their mediation carried genuine authority, while the greater salvation was announced through the Lord Himself, confirmed by those who heard Him, and accompanied by God’s own testimony through signs, wonders, works of power, and distributions of the Holy Spirit.
The author returns to the comparison with angels, but the question has changed. Hebrews is no longer simply asking whether the Son is greater than the angels or whether revelation through Him carries greater authority than revelation mediated through them. The author begins talking about the world God intends to place under human rule, and that creates what initially appears to be a problem.
Hebrews 2:5 (WEB)
> For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.
The statement prepares us for the quotation that follows. Angels may be powerful heavenly beings, but they are not the creatures to whom God has subjected “the world to come.” Whatever Hebrews means by that expression, the author immediately tells us that its government does not ultimately belong to angels. Instead, he opens Psalm 8.
Hebrews 2:6–8a (WEB)
> But one has somewhere testified, saying,
“What is man, that you think of him? Or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor.
You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him.
The quotation changes the direction of the discussion in a remarkable way. Hebrews has spent much of the letter so far looking upward toward the Son, the throne of God, and the angels surrounding Him.
Psalm 8 makes the author look downward toward humanity and ask why creatures who appear so small within God’s creation should occupy such an extraordinary place within His purposes.
Understanding what Hebrews does with this Psalm requires us first to hear the Psalm itself. What Is Man?
Psalm 8 begins and ends with worship. Psalm 8:1–4 (WEB)
> Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens!
From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man, that you think of him?
What is the son of man, that you care for him? The question arises from comparison. David looks at the heavens, the moon, and the stars and then considers humanity. The effect is humbling.
Human beings appear almost absurdly small beside the scale of the creation God has made. It does not take long beneath a clear night sky before human self-importance becomes considerably harder to maintain.
Yet Psalm 8 does not conclude from human smallness that humanity is unimportant. David’s astonishment comes from the opposite realization.
The God whose fingers formed the heavens is mindful of human beings. The question “What is man?” is therefore not answered by declaring humanity worthless. The Psalm moves immediately from human smallness to human dignity.
Psalm 8:5–8 (WEB)
> For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet: all sheep and cattle, yes, and the animals of the field, the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
The God whose glory stands above the heavens has given humanity a remarkable place within the world He made. Human significance does not arise from our size, strength, independence, or ability to impress God.
It arises from the place God chose to give humanity within His creation. That should sound familiar because Psalm 8 is drawing upon Genesis.
Genesis 1:26–28 (WEB)
> God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Psalm 8 is celebrating the vocation given to humanity at creation. God made human beings in His image and appointed them to exercise dominion beneath Him. They do not possess creation independently, as though God surrendered ownership and wandered elsewhere. Humanity rules as God’s image-bearing representative within the world He made.
That helps explain the royal language of Psalm 8. Humanity is “crowned with glory and honor,” and the works of God’s hands are placed beneath human feet. The Psalm is not originally describing one unusually impressive individual standing above the rest of humanity. It is describing the dignity and vocation God gave mankind. Hebrews knows that. And that creates a problem. But We Don’t See It Yet After quoting Psalm 8, Hebrews draws attention to the comprehensiveness of its claim.
Hebrews 2:8 (WEB)
> For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we don’t see all things subjected to him, yet.
The author takes “all things” seriously. If God subjected all things to humanity, then nothing falls outside the scope of the dominion described in the Psalm.
Then Hebrews looks at the world, and something is obviously wrong. The human beings who were supposed to rule creation are themselves continually ruled by forces they cannot master. We exercise astonishing dominion over portions of the created world. We cultivate land, domesticate animals, build cities, cross oceans, redirect rivers, study distant galaxies, manipulate materials at microscopic scales, and develop technologies David could not have imagined while staring at the night sky. Humanity’s creational vocation has certainly not disappeared.
Yet nobody looking seriously at the human condition could reasonably conclude that Psalm 8 has reached its complete expression in us.
We do not rule everything. Creation kills us. Disease kills us. Animals kill us. Weather kills us. Other human beings kill us. Our own bodies eventually stop cooperating and kill us. We can send machines beyond the solar system while remaining incapable of preventing every person who built them from eventually dying.
Genesis explains why the world looks this way. Humanity was commissioned to rule creation under God, but humanity rebelled against the God whose image it bore. Sin did not erase the image of God or completely remove humanity’s creational vocation, but it brought death, corruption, frustration, and alienation into human existence. The ruler became subject to the very creation over which he had been appointed. Paul describes creation itself as sharing in that frustration.
Romans 8:19–23 (WEB)
> For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
Paul and Hebrews approach the subject differently, but the basic tension is recognizable in both. God’s purpose for humanity and creation has not been abandoned, yet the world we presently experience has not reached that purpose in its fullness. Hebrews states the tension with wonderful simplicity:
> “But now we don’t see all things subjected to him, yet.” That “yet” matters.
Hebrews does not respond to the apparent failure of Psalm 8 by deciding that God’s original purpose must have been canceled. Nor does the author redefine “all things” until the statement becomes small enough to match present experience. He acknowledges the discrepancy between promise and sight. God has declared something concerning humanity that we do not presently see completely realized.
If the passage ended there, we would have a problem without a solution. It does not end there.
But We See Jesus
Hebrews 2:9 (WEB)
> But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone. The movement is magnificent. We do not yet see everything subjected to humanity. But we see Jesus.
Hebrews does not abandon Psalm 8 when ordinary humanity fails to display its promised destiny. The author finds the fulfillment of humanity’s vocation beginning in one particular human being. Jesus stands where Adam and his descendants failed to stand. In Him, the human calling described in Psalm 8 is not discarded but fulfilled.
This also explains something important about the way Hebrews is using the Psalm. Psalm 8, in its original context, is about humanity. Hebrews does not need us to pretend that David secretly wrote the word “man” while intending everyone to understand “Jesus of Nazareth” instead. The author’s Christological reading works precisely because Jesus became truly human.
The Son described throughout Hebrews 1 has entered the human condition described in Psalm 8.
That is the astonishing transition between the chapters. Hebrews 1 speaks of the Son as the One through whom God made the ages, the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His being, the One whose hands laid the foundations of the earth and whose years will never fail. Hebrews 2 now speaks of that same Son as the One made lower than the angels.
The Creator entered His creation. The One whom angels worship entered the condition of those who, for a little while, stand beneath them. The eternal Son became genuinely human.
Hebrews is not embarrassed by either side of that confession and refuses to solve the tension by weakening one of them. Jesus is not a creature promoted until He becomes almost divine, nor is He God merely appearing human while remaining untouched by genuine human existence. The One placed beyond the created order in chapter 1 enters humanity’s place within that order in chapter 2.
That descent is necessary because the problem Hebrews is addressing is a human problem, and the destiny being restored is a human destiny. A Little Lower Than the Angels The wording quoted from Psalm 8 deserves attention because it contains an ambiguity that becomes particularly important in Hebrews. The Greek expression brachy ti can describe either degree—“a little lower”—or duration—“for a little while lower.” Psalm 8 naturally describes humanity’s place beneath the heavenly beings, while Hebrews’ application to Jesus brings the temporal sense of His humiliation especially into view.
The Son does not cease to be the One described in chapter 1. His being made lower than the angels describes the condition He assumes in becoming human and, particularly in Hebrews
2:9, in becoming subject to suffering and death. Angels do not normally occupy that condition. Human beings do.
Death is part of the present human condition under sin, and Hebrews is preparing to explain why the Son entered it. The One who possesses an everlasting throne accepts a condition in which He can die. The One whose years will not fail enters the existence of Adam’s children and experiences death Himself.
This is not an unfortunate interruption in His royal career. It is the path by which the human vocation reaches its fulfillment.
Hebrews says Jesus was made lower than the angels “because of the suffering of death” and is now “crowned with glory and honor.” The language deliberately echoes Psalm 8. What the Psalm says concerning humanity’s intended glory, Hebrews now sees realized in Jesus.
That does not mean Jesus merely returned to the divine glory He possessed before becoming human, although the New Testament certainly teaches His preexistent glory. Hebrews is making a more specific argument here. Jesus, as man, has reached the glory and honor associated with humanity’s intended destiny. Humanity was made for glory. In Jesus, humanity has arrived there. Crowned With Glory and Honor This is where Hebrews’ argument begins to reverse the tragedy of Genesis. Adam receives dominion and loses life through disobedience. Jesus enters the realm of death and emerges crowned with glory and honor.
Humanity’s intended rule seemed contradicted by the fact that human beings themselves remained subject to death, but Jesus passes through death and is exalted beyond it.
Paul develops a closely related Adam-Christ contrast in 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 15:21–22, 45–49 (WEB)
> For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are those who are also heavenly. As we have borne the image of those made of dust, let’s also bear the image of the heavenly.
Paul and Hebrews are not making identical arguments, but both locate the restoration of humanity in Christ. Jesus does not save human beings by abandoning the human project and evacuating them from everything God intended humanity to be. He restores humanity by becoming the faithful human being in whom God’s purpose reaches its destination.
That is why the language of Psalm 8 can be applied to Him without ceasing to concern us.
Jesus is not merely an isolated exception proving that one human being finally managed to succeed. He is the representative human being.
Hebrews will make that solidarity increasingly explicit in the verses immediately ahead. The author will speak of many sons being brought to glory, of the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified belonging together, of Jesus calling them brothers, and of His sharing in flesh and blood. We do not need to develop all of that before Hebrews does, but verse 9 already points us in that direction. What happens to Jesus as the faithful human being is connected to the destiny of the people He saves.
The crown of glory and honor upon His head is therefore extraordinarily good news for people who still look around and admit that they do not see everything subjected beneath human feet. The fulfillment has begun. We see it in Him. The World to Come That brings us back to the statement with which the passage began.
Hebrews 2:5 (WEB)
> For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.
“The world to come” is sometimes read as though Hebrews were simply contrasting the present earth with a completely separate future location. The expression is better understood within the eschatological framework already emerging in the letter. Hebrews began by saying that God has spoken “at the end of these days” in His Son. Christ has already made purification for sins and taken His seat at God’s right hand. Psalm 110 has already placed Him upon the throne while His enemies are progressively subjected beneath His feet.
Something promised for the age to come has therefore already entered history in Christ, even though its complete manifestation remains ahead.
This is the familiar New Testament tension between what has already happened and what has not yet reached completion. Jesus has been raised, but Christians still die. The King has been enthroned, but enemies remain.
Humanity has been crowned with glory and honor in Christ, but we do not yet see all things subjected beneath human feet.
Hebrews refuses to solve that tension by sacrificing either side. Christ really reigns now, everything really will be subjected, and we genuinely do not see that complete subjection yet. But we see Jesus.
That makes verse 9 the answer to the apparent contradiction in verse 8. Christian confidence does not rest upon pretending the world already looks exactly as it eventually will. Hebrews allows us to look directly at the unfinished condition of the present world. Death remains. Suffering remains. Creation remains frustrated. Human beings remain far from exercising the righteous dominion for which they were created.
Faith does not require calling any of those things imaginary. It requires looking at the One in whom God’s promised future has already begun.
He Tasted Death The path to that glory, however, runs directly through the thing that most obviously contradicts humanity’s intended dominion. Death.
Hebrews 2:9 says Jesus was crowned with glory and honor “because of the suffering of death” and that “by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.”
The expression “taste of death” does not mean Jesus merely sampled death without fully experiencing it. Scripture can use “taste” to describe genuine experience. Jesus truly died. The Son who sustains all things entered the human condition so completely that His body was placed in a tomb.
That should prevent us from imagining the incarnation as God visiting humanity while maintaining a safe distance from the worst parts of being human. Jesus does not stand outside our condition and offer instructions for escaping it. He enters it. Hebrews will shortly tell us that He shared in flesh and blood precisely because the children share in flesh and blood.
His death is also explicitly described as being “for everyone.” We should allow Hebrews to develop the sacrificial dimensions of Christ’s death as the letter progresses rather than importing its entire later argument into this one phrase, but substitution and representation are already beginning to appear. Jesus experiences death on behalf of others. The One who fulfills humanity’s vocation does so not merely for Himself but for those whose destiny has become bound to His.
And Hebrews says this occurs “by the grace of God.” The descent of the Son into death is not evidence that God’s purpose failed.
It belongs to God’s gracious purpose for restoring the people who failed. The road to humanity’s crown runs through the cross.
That sounds backward because nearly everything about the gospel sounds backward when measured by ordinary human ideas of power. The One greater than angels becomes lower than angels. The One through whom creation came enters creation. The Son whose years will never fail enters death. The King reaches His crown through suffering. Victory passes through death.
Yet resurrection reveals that death did not finally contradict the promise of Psalm 8. Jesus passed through it.
The human being who entered death now stands crowned with glory and honor beyond its reach. Humanity in Christ
Psalm 8 asks what humanity is that God should care for it. Genesis answers that humanity was created in God’s image and commissioned to rule beneath Him. Human history then provides an uncomfortable demonstration of how badly that vocation has been corrupted. We were made to exercise righteous dominion over creation while living beneath God’s dominion, but sin turned rulers into rebels and brought those rulers beneath the power of death.
If we looked only at ourselves, Psalm 8 might begin to sound less like a description of reality and more like an abandoned plan.
Hebrews does look at us. It openly admits what we see:
> “But now we don’t see all things subjected to him, yet.” Then the author directs our eyes somewhere else:
> “But we see…Jesus.” That movement is central to the passage. Hebrews does not find hope by discovering hidden greatness within humanity independent of Christ.
Neither does it conclude that human beings were a failed experiment and God has moved on to something more promising. God’s purpose for humanity is fulfilled through the Son becoming human. Jesus is what faithful humanity looks like.
He enters Adam’s world without repeating Adam’s rebellion. He assumes the human condition under sin without becoming a sinner. He suffers death and emerges from it crowned with the glory and honor humanity was created to possess.
The Son has not merely come to rescue us from being human. He has come to restore what being human was supposed to mean.
That matters for how Christians think about salvation. Biblical salvation is larger than escaping punishment after death. Forgiveness is indispensable, and Hebrews will give enormous attention to the removal of sin, but God’s purpose does not terminate with forgiven sinners existing forever as forgiven sinners. He is restoring His creation and bringing His image-bearers into the destiny for which they were made. The Christian hope is therefore profoundly human: resurrection, not permanent disembodiment; creation restored, not creation discarded; humanity glorified under God, not humanity erased. Jesus stands at the center of that hope because what we do not yet see completed in humanity we already see accomplished in Him.
We See Jesus Hebrews began this section by telling us that the world to come was not subjected to angels. Psalm 8 explains why: God’s purpose concerns humanity. Human beings were created a little lower than the heavenly beings, crowned with glory and honor, and appointed over the works of God’s hands.
The world we presently see makes that claim difficult to recognize. Humanity exercises real dominion while simultaneously remaining subject to corruption, suffering, and death. The crown described by Psalm 8 seems badly tarnished when placed beside the history of the people supposedly wearing it. Hebrews does not deny what our eyes tell us. We do not yet see all things subjected.
The word “yet” prevents present experience from becoming the final interpretation of God’s promise, while the next sentence gives us the reason. We see Jesus.
The Son whom Hebrews 1 placed above the angels became for a little while lower than the angels. The Creator entered His creation, the eternal Son entered the human condition, and the One whose years never fail tasted death. Yet the humiliation was not the end of His human story. Jesus now stands crowned with the glory and honor Psalm 8 assigns to humanity.
What humanity was created to become has therefore not disappeared. It has appeared in Christ.
The present world remains unfinished. Death still behaves like an enemy. Creation still groans. We still experience the enormous distance between humanity as God intended it and humanity as we presently know it. Hebrews does not ask us to pretend otherwise. It asks us to look at Jesus.
When the world around us does not yet resemble the world God has promised, Christian hope rests upon the One in whom that promised future has already broken into the present. The fulfillment of Psalm 8 has begun with the resurrection and exaltation of the faithful human being who passed through death and now wears humanity’s crown. We do not see everything yet.