Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that through death in the flesh Christ destroyed him who has the might of death, that is, the devil, and released those who because of the fear of death through all their life were held in slavery. Our body is becoming increasingly old because it is under the slavery of death. In fact, man, since the day of his birth, is not living but dying every day. All human beings, whether young or old, are dying. Likewise, all beautiful flowers are not living but dying. Although they may be beautiful now, sooner or later they will fade and lose their beauty. Everything in the universe is decaying, dying, because it is held in the slavery of death. The grass is dying, yet it is not afraid of death because it has no feeling, no consciousness. On the contrary, because we human beings are sensitive and have strong feelings, we are very concerned about and threatened by death. Throughout our lifetime, we are held in the slavery of death. Yet Christ annulled this slavery, for He destroyed death at its root. The destruction of this enslaving death will not be fully carried out until the end of the millennium, at which time death, the last enemy, will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).
The Greek word translated “destroy” in Hebrews 2:14 may also be rendered “bring to nought, make of none effect, do away with, abolish, annul, discard.” After the devil, the serpent, seduced man into the fall, God promised that the seed of woman would come to bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). In the fullness of the time the Son of God came to become flesh (John 1:14; Rom. 8:3) by being born of a virgin (Gal. 4:4), that He might destroy the devil in man’s flesh through His death in the flesh on the cross. This was to abolish Satan, to bring him to nought. Satan has been abolished and done away with. Christ destroyed him, annulled him, brought him to nought, and rendered him powerless.
Perhaps we may ask, “How could the devil have been destroyed when he is still so prevailing?” It is a lie to say that the devil is prevailing. The Bible never says this. We should not believe in this lie. The Bible says that the devil has been bruised, destroyed. His head has been crushed. Will we believe our feelings or God’s Word? God’s Word tells us that through His death on the cross Christ destroyed the devil. This is an accomplished fact, a fact that is included in the holy Word as the testament bequeathed to us. We need to take this bequest by faith according to the holy Word.
Christ destroyed Satan. He partook of our nature in order to destroy the devil who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14-15). The best way to defeat Satan is to shame him, telling him that he has been defeated and destroyed and that he should go back to his place and keep his position. If we shame Satan in this way, he will go. By partaking of our nature and destroying Satan, Christ has released us from slavery. Death has been abolished; Satan, who holds the power of death, has been destroyed; and we have been released from slavery.
Christ’s death also released us from the slavery under the fear of death (v. 15). Since through His death Christ tasted death for us and destroyed the devil who has the might of death, His death released us from the slavery in which we were held because of the fear of death. We have been released from this slavery. Because of the all-inclusive crucifixion of Christ, there is no more death, no more sin, no more devil, no more fear of death, and no more slavery. By His mercy, the Lord has opened our eyes and has shown us the all-inclusiveness of His death. Now through experience we realize that death, sin, the devil, the fear of death, and slavery were all truly crossed out in Christ’s crucifixion.
Verse 9 tells us that God crowned Christ with glory and honor. Glory is the splendor related to Jesus’ person; honor is the preciousness related to Jesus’ worth, value, and dignity, which is related to His position (2 Pet. 1:17; cf. 1 Pet. 2:17; Rom. 13:7). Glory refers to Christ’s expression of God, whereas honor refers to the highest position in the universe, which the resurrected and ascended Christ occupies. In 1 Peter 2:7 the Greek word for preciousness is the same as that for honor in Hebrews 2:9.
The prophecy in Psalm 8 says that God has “crowned” man, who is lower than the angels, “with glory and honor” (v. 5). This was not fulfilled in any man until the man Jesus ascended to the heavens. Hence, this prophecy concerns the Lord as a man, and it is fulfilled in Him.
After resurrection Christ was glorified, not only in the manifestation of His divine nature but also in the ascension into God’s glory. Christ not only entered into glory but was also crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). Man crowned Him with thorns to shame Him (John 19:2), but God crowned Him with glory and honor to glorify Him. We saw Him on the cross on earth with the crown of thorns, but now we see Him on the throne in heaven crowned with glory and honor.
After He accomplished redemption by suffering death, Jesus was glorified in His resurrection (Luke 24:26) and was crowned with glory and honor in His ascension to the heavens (Heb. 2:9). Although the Lord Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man, when we come to the matter of His being crowned with glory and honor, we must pay special attention to His humanity, to His being the Son of Man. It is in His humanity that He is crowned with glory and honor. As a man in His ascension to the heavens, He was crowned in this way.
Jesus is crowned with glory and honor in the third heaven. The little Jesus who was born in the manger, who was raised in a poor home in Nazareth, and who had no beauty or comeliness, in His ascension to the heavens was crowned with glory and honor.
Christ’s ascension, which followed His resurrection, was an exaltation. From the earthly viewpoint, it was an ascension from man, but from the heavenly viewpoint, it was an exaltation by God. After Christ had been crowned with glory and honor in His ascension, God gave Him the dominion over all things in His exaltation (v. 7). This is similar to what God did with Adam. Adam lost the dominion that God gave to him, but according to the prophecy of Psalm 8, Christ recovered what Adam lost. Now the same dominion has been given to the second man. We all must declare that we were born in the first man, but we were reborn in the second man. We were born in the first man and lost everything with him, but since we have been reborn in the second man, we have regained everything. The second man has been glorified, crowned with glory and honor, and entrusted with the divine dominion that was lost by the first man.
Jesus was crowned with glory and honor to be the Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36; 10:36b). Before His incarnation, He was the Lord. However, as a man, He was not the Lord. Now, in His ascension, He, as a man, has been crowned to be the Lord. This is a great matter. On the one hand, He already was the Lord because He was God; on the other hand, in His humanity He was crowned to be the Lord of all. He is also the Christ, that is, the anointed One. The Lord means that He is the Lord ruling over all, and Christ means that He is the anointed One who has been appointed to accomplish everything for God’s plan. The anointed One is the appointed One, and the appointed One is the One who runs God’s universal corporation, Christ and the church.
Christ was exalted as Leader and Savior (5:31). The Greek word for Leader, translated “Prince” in the King James Version, is the same Greek word that is rendered “Author” in Hebrews 2:10. The Greek word may also be rendered “Captain, Originator, Inaugurator, or Pioneer.” Christ was crowned with glory and honor so that He might be our Captain. As the Greek word indicates, He is also our Leader, Prince, Pioneer, and Forerunner. Jesus is the One who fights, takes the lead, moves ahead, being the first to reach His destination. He has cut the way into glory, and we are now taking the way that He has cut. Hence, He is not only the Savior who saved us from our fallen estate and from all the negative things; He is also the Captain who, as the Pioneer, has entered into glory that we might be brought into the same estate. The Lord Jesus today is the Lord, the Christ, the Captain, and the Savior.
Hebrews 2 tells us that one day the man Jesus, who for a time was made a little inferior to the angels, resurrected and ascended to the third heaven and was crowned with glory and honor (v. 7). A man is now in heaven, crowned with glory and honor. Although the angels are in heaven, they are not crowned. Yet there is now a man crowned in heaven. We should not prefer to be angels. We should be fully satisfied to be a man, having Christ within us and being in Christ. In Him we also are crowned with glory and honor.