Jesus is the Last Adam (Heb. 2:5-9)

This sermon was preached on 17/2/2013

The author of this marvellous letter continues to show his readers that Jesus is superior to angels. He has mentioned that Jesus is superior to them because of his resurrection from the dead (no angel experienced this display of power), because of his reign at God’s right hand (no angel received this position of honour), because of his role as creator and re-creator of the universe (no angel can create from his own resources), and because the message of the gospel is superior to that of the law (the angels conveyed the law, Jesus was the message). Now the author comes to another way in which Jesus is superior to angels, which is that he is the last Adam, the head of the new humanity. 

Before we look at these verses, we can note that once again the author quotes from a psalm in order to explain the greatness of Christ. As we have noted in previous occasions in studying this book, the author’s method is a reminder that Jesus is the key to understanding biblical passages. Without Jesus, Psalm 8 is only a reference to the past because it describes what took place at the beginning of creation, and we know that sin has marred that original state of blessedness. With Jesus, Psalm 8 becomes a description of the future as well as an explanation of the past. So, even with regard to Bible passages, what a difference Jesus makes!

Going back to the angels, some Jews apparently believed that geographical areas were assigned to different angels. Support for this possibility is found in the Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 32:8, which in the ESV says: ‘When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.’ We may be more familiar with the KJV rendering of the last phrase as ‘the number of the children of Israel’. If this idea was promoted among the Jews, then the author could be saying to them, ‘Even if angels had a place of authority, they never had universal authority. But Jesus has!’

The original dignity of man

The psalm reveals that the Lord thought about his human creatures and gave to him the most prominent role in God’s creation. Adam was installed as King of the Earth, with Eve as the Queen, with all other creatures on the earth being subservient to them. Yet there was one group of creatures that were superior to them and these creatures were the angels. God made Adam and Eve ‘a little lower than the angels’. In other words, human authority was limited to a particular area of influence, and the angels were not included within that area. The word translated ‘little’ can mean either little in the sense of time or little in the sense of position. It is likely that both meanings are found here. 

The loss of dignity

Yet humanity has lost this position of authority. The kingdom over which they were to rule has become a territory marked by rebellion, a rebellion which they led, although Adam was primarily responsible. Instead of the earth existing for the glory of God, it has become the place where the enemies of God exert their power, whether these enemies are sin, death or the devil. 

The loss of human authority is not merely a theoretical problem. Throughout the whole of human history, including our own day, millions of people suffer from disease, cruelty, uncertainty, and disappointments. Even those who profess to follow Jesus are not immune from these situations, including those to whom this letter was originally sent. Yet the author’s advice to focus on Christ needs to be considered by us because it is given to help us make sense of life today.

How should we assess things today? First, we must realise that although these enemies of God have not put God of his throne, they have caused man not to have his place of prominence as God’s vice-regent. 

Second, we must realise that God’s original plan for the rule of man over God’s creation has not been abandoned. The author says to us that it will yet be restored; he says that the world depicted in Psalm 8 will one day be realised. Man will yet know forever the dignity that Psalm 8 describes. 

Third, we must realise that we live in the period when the work of restoration has begun, but has not been completed.  The author calls this new world by a Jewish phrase – ‘the world to come’ – which was used to describe the age of the Messiah. Since Jesus is the Messiah, the ‘world to come’ has begun, but has not yet reached its final form. 

Fourth, we must realise that Jesus is the key for understanding what is taking place. This is why the author urges his readers to look at Jesus and understand what has happened to him, what he has done in the past, is doing in the present, and will do in the future. Understanding the work of Jesus makes sense of all the apparent contradictions and difficulties that we may have. 

Crowned with glory and honour

The author reminds us that Jesus is crowned with glory and honour (v.9). Obviously this is a description of his exalted state in heaven. He has been given the highest place possible at the right hand of God. In the immediate context of the letter, in which the author is discussing the place of angels, his explanation indicates that they are subservient to Jesus. This is in contrast to the opinions of some Jews who assumed that authority over the future world had been given to angels. But his explanation also reveals that what has happened to Jesus is similar to what happened to Adam because both Jesus and Adam were crowned with glory and honour. He does not mean that they were crowned with the same dignity, but his words show that there is a link between them. 

Why was Adam crowned with glory and honour? This status was a gift from God which Adam had not merited. The status was also a reminder of his purpose which was to rule on behalf of God. As long as he fulfilled his role, the domain over which he ruled was safe. He was to defend his kingdom from the enemy (the devil), he was to keep death out of his realm, and he was to develop the world to meet the needs of all its inhabitants. These aspects are all clear from the first three chapters of Genesis.

Why was Jesus crowned with glory and honour? The answer to this question is twofold: firstly, it was his reward for coming into this world in order to rescue mankind; secondly, it was to begin the process of restoring to man his God-given dignity. These are two reasons why we should continually keep our eyes on Jesus.

His coming into the world

The author says that when Jesus came into the world, he was made ‘a little lower than the angels... so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.’ As we noted earlier, the word ‘little’ can have two meanings. It is certainly the case that, as far as Jesus is concerned, his humiliation was only for a little while of about thirty-three years, although its ultimate stated occurred when he was no the cross of shame. Yet it can also be argued that in his humanity Jesus was weaker than the angels in the sense that he was dependent on food to ease his hunger and that he needed the rest of sleep in order to recover from weariness and exhaustion. Unlike the angels, Jesus was marked by poverty, even for a short time without a place to call his home.

Yet it is clear from the author’s words that the main reason for Jesus becoming lower than the angels was in order to die. Jesus himself stated that angels cannot die (Luke 20:36); it is not an experience that they can know. Yet we have to ask why he had to die. The answer to this question is that he became the substitute of sinners.

What kind of death did Jesus die? Obviously it was a real death. The author says that Jesus ‘tasted’ death. This does not mean that he experienced death in the way that a person might eat a small piece of rotten food and spit it out. Rather it means that he tasted every ingredient that made up the experience that we call death. 

Let us think about some of these ingredients. From the point of view of those who crucified him, it was a violent death. Physically it involved pain and embarrassment as he hung naked, crucified on the cross. Yet it involved more than violence from humans. 

His death was also vicarious in that he took the place of sinners and bore the wrath of God against their sins. The rescue mission of Jesus was dangerous and difficult, and required him to go into the unknown darkness where God would turn his face away from him. Yet he went through the dark valley, carrying our sins away by bearing the penalty that was due to them.

A third feature of his death is that it was a victory over the powers of darkness. As he was hanging on the cross, Jesus in his soul was battling against the devil and his hosts. They were determined to destroy him, but he removed their power to accuse his people when he paid the penalty for their sins.

Adolph Saphir explains thus the meaning of ‘tasting death’: ‘The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was a slow and painful death; He was ‘roasted with fire’; as was prefigured by the Paschal Lamb. But it was not merely that it lasted a considerable time, that it was attended with agony of mind as well as pain of body; but that He came, as no other finite creature can come, into contact with death. He tasted death; all that was in death was concentrated in that cup which the Lord Jesus Christ emptied on the cross...

‘But what was it that He tasted in death? Death is the curse which sin brings, the penalty of the broken law, the manifestation of the power of the devil, the expression of the wrath of God; and in all these aspects the Lord Jesus Christ came into contact with death, and tasted it to the very last. He tasted it as the consequence of sin, though He knew no sin in Himself personally; but He, as the perfect, pure, and spotless Son of God, and Son of man, had an infinite appreciation of the evil of sin in its loathsomeness, in its cruelty, in its apostasy from God, in its contrariety to the will of the Holy One. He saw the true nature of sin Godwards and manwards; upwards to the throne of holiness, and downwards to the bottomless abyss; in its depths, and in its everlasting consequences, did He perceive it. We do not see the real consequences of sin, not knowing the exceeding sinfulness of sin. We find it difficult to realize that such awful infinite results should come from it; but He saw sin in all its mystery, in all its reality.’

Many people, especially those who are Calvinists, are puzzled about the meaning of ‘tasted death for every man’. Is the author teaching universal atonement? So we need to look at it briefly. The first thing to say is that the Bible often uses universal language to describe atoning aspects of the death of Christ. When it does so, it usually means the race as a whole rather than the number of persons belonging to it or every person in it. So that might be what the author is doing here. 

The second possibility is that the words should not be translated as ‘every man’ but as ‘every thing’, which is a reminder that the death of Jesus has cosmic consequences that extend beyond his human creatures. Yet it is more likely that if the author was referring to the creation he would have used a plural word rather than a singular.

The third possibility is that the author is referring to his readers, who would be Christians, and expects them to understand his words as ‘every one of us’, that is every one of God’s people. Support for such an application can be seen from the fact that the author uses personal pronouns in this section and refers throughout it, in different ways, to believers. I think that is what it means, yet there is an additional element that we should not overlook, and that is the individuality of his atoning death – he died because of the specific sins of individual people.

This was why Jesus came into the world and it is one reason why we are to look at him. The Christ that we are to contemplate is the enthroned King who bears the scars of his great struggle on the cross of Calvary. We turn our eyes heavenwards, not to behold the material universe, but with the knowledge that beyond the visible heavens there is the place where Jesus has been crowned with glory and honour. As we do, we realise that the cause of losing our dignity has been dealt with, the penalty of our sin has been paid.

His restoring of our dignity

The second reason why Jesus has been crowned with glory and honour is that he has received authority to deal with the various barriers to humans once again sharing the dignity of kings of creation. There are many barriers to it, but he will deal with them. I would mention a few needs that we have.

The first need is that of a restored relationship. Adam was a son of God and his rebellion caused him to lose the benefits of that bond. Instead all humans are prodigal sons. But through Jesus, they can be restored to the full relationship as sons of God, a relationship that will ultimately include full conformity to Christ (1 John 3:1-2).

The second need is that of resurrection from the dead. Because of Adam, we live in the world of death. Jesus can bring us into the world of life by regeneration, and he will bring such also into the perfect world through the resurrection and glorification of their bodies as well as the transformation of the created order (Rom. 8:18-21).

The third need is the removal of sin from the universe. This he will do when he banishes sin and Satan, along with death, into the outer darkness. He has already removed sin from his people in the sense that they have been forgiven. One day he will remove it completely, and the new heavens and new earth will be here, forever.

This is the second reason why we look to Jesus Christ. We expect him to do great things for the human race composed of those he has rescued from the state of sin. The one who died to deliver them from the wrath of God also lives to restore them to a relationship of sons, to resurrect them from the dead, and to remove sin and its causes and effects from them forever.

The question that comes to us is whether or not we will experience all the blessings of the Saviour’s work. We can do so by trusting in him now.