May 01, 2025 | Be God's Family
Jesus Was Made a Little Lower than Angels
Scripture: Hebrews 2:5-9(NIV)
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 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
8 and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 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.
Devotional
Angels – God’s messengers and protectors. Mediators between God and humanity. While they may be all these things, the author of Hebrews tells us of a limitation of these angelic beings. The earth has never been subject to them, and it will not be subject to them in the future. This authority is reserved for another entity – humanity.
Have you ever wondered what God thinks of us? Does God think, as we hear in Genesis 6:6, that God “regretted that (God) had made human beings on the earth, and (God’s) heart was deeply troubled”? Even though humans can do the most senseless things sometimes, and God is probably “deeply troubled”, in Hebrews 2, we are reminded of just how much God cares for and values humankind. And we are also reminded of the sacrifice Jesus suffered on our behalf.
God loves and values us so much that God created us “a little lower than the angels” and “crowned (us) with glory and honor”. Are you not humbled by this declaration? Why would the creator and ruler of the universe care for us so much? As insignificant as we are, God so cherishes us that we have been elevated to a position of glory and honor. And not only that but God created us to be rulers over the earth. Rulers, guardians, and caretakers of all the good that God created. Back in Genesis we hear that 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” (Genesis 1:26)
The author of Hebrews reiterates this same message by quoting Psalm 8:4-6 which says that God esteems his human creation so highly that dominion of all the earth has been given to them, not to angels. But we are limited as well. We cannot yet be true rulers over the earth. Our sins prevent us from fully claiming the glory and honor that God wishes to bestow on us.
As sinful as we are, Jesus has redeemed us. Jesus became “nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man......” (Philippians 2:7-8a) Jesus, creator and one with God, superior to the angels, humbled himself to become one of us. By Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection, he has fulfilled the words of the Psalmist. Jesus has attained the glory and honor “for every man – that ever was or will be born into the world” (John Wesley, Notes, Hebrews 2:9) Glory be to God!
Poem
Majestic Your Creation
Psalm 8
You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:5
Majestic Your creation
A mirror of Your name
Throughout the heav’ns reflected
Exclaiming all Your fame
To ponder each created--
The bird, the fish, the beast--
It’s more than can imagine
From greatest to the least
Yet You have us created
Your image-bearers here
Just lower than the angels
Yet greater in Your care
You, high enthroned and vaulted
Descend to us to save
Then with You, we’re exalted
By conquering the grave
So with the babes we babble
In tongues diverse and wide
Your praise and great redemption
Which Your grace does provide
