Message Four

The Son—His Humanity

Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26-28; Psa. 8:4-8; Heb. 2:5-18

1. Hebrews 2 reveals the Man Jesus, the Man-God, for the fulfillment of God’s purpose:
   1. God ordained the man in creation to express Him in His image and to represent Him with His dominion (Gen. 1:26-28), but the man in creation failed God in His purpose.
   2. Under the inspiration of God, the psalmist prophesied the recovery of man’s lost ordination which was given in Genesis 1—Psa. 8:4-8.
   3. The second man, the Lord Jesus, who has recovered man’s lost ordination and has fulfilled God’s original purpose, is presented to us in Hebrews 2:
      1. The Man Jesus, in the fulfillment of the prophecy in Psalm 8, was made a little inferior to the angels because of the suffering of death—Heb. 2:9a.
      2. After He had accomplished redemption by suffering death, Jesus was glorified in His resurrection (Luke 24:26), and in His ascension, in His humanity, He was crowned with glory and honor—Heb. 2:9b:
         1. He was crowned with glory and honor to be the Lord and Christ—Acts 2:36; 10:36b.
         2. He has been exalted to be a Leader and a Savior—Acts 5:31.
2. Hebrews 2 reveals the process through which Christ passed in His humanity to accomplish God’s purpose:
   1. In incarnation:
      1. Christ became a man in order to partake of our blood and flesh (v. 14), becoming the same in nature as we are:
         1. To bring God into man
         2. To make God man that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
         3. To mingle God with man that God and man may be one.
         4. To accomplish God’s redemption for man— Rom. 8:3; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; Heb. 9:26, 28, 12; 2:14.
         5. To carry out God’s salvation in man— 1 Tim. 1:15.
         6. To impart the divine life into man— 1 John 4:9.
      2. Christ was made like His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest, who can be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses—Heb. 2:17; 4:15.
   2. In crucifixion:
      1. Christ tasted death on behalf of everything—Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20; 2 Tim. 1:10.
      2. In His death Christ made propitiation for the sins of the people—Heb. 2:17.
      3. In His crucifixion Christ destroyed (brought to nought, made of none effect, did away with, abolished, annulled, discarded) the devil—Heb. 2:14; Gen. 3:15; Rom. 8:3.
      4. Christ’s death has also released us from the slavery under the fear of death—Heb. 2:15.
   3. In resurrection:
      1. In His resurrection Christ brought forth many brothers—Heb. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 1:3; John 12:24; Rom. 8:29.
      2. In His resurrection Christ came to His brothers and declared to them the Father’s name— Heb. 2:12a.
      3. In His resurrection Christ praised the Father in the church—v. 12b.
   4. In glorification:
      1. Christ took the lead to enter into glory as the Pioneer to lead God’s many sons into glory— Heb. 2:10; 6:20.
      2. Christ has been crowned with glory and honor—Heb. 2:9; cf. John 19:2.
   5. In exaltation:
      1. After Christ had been crowned with glory and honor in ascension, God gave Him the dominion over all things in His exaltation—Heb. 2:7; Eph. 1:22-23; Ezek. 1:26.
      2. In His exaltation Christ was made Head over all things—Heb. 2:8; Psa. 110:1; 1 Cor. 15:27.