After resurrection, Christ was glorified, not only in the manifestation of His divine nature but also in the ascension into God’s glory. As the Captain of our salvation, Christ, in His ascension, has entered into the glory in which God is. God’s desire is to bring His many sons into glory (2:10). Christ took the lead to enter into this glory as the Pioneer (6:20). The Jesus who was despised by man on earth is glorified by God in heaven. We all must look unto Him in glory.
Christ has not only entered into glory but has also been crowned with glory and honor (2:9). Glory is His divine splendor, and honor is the worth of His preciousness in His virtues and His dignity in His position. 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. This is the Jesus revealed in the book of Hebrews.
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 (2:7). 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 has recovered what Adam lost. Now the same dominion has been given to the second man. Are you in the first man or the second? We all must reply, “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.
In His exaltation, Christ was made Head over all things (2:8). God has subjected all things under His feet. Now He is only waiting for one thing—for the subtle Satan and all His enemies to be made His footstool.
We see Jesus in these aspects of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification, and exaltation. We do not see Him in the low way of tradition, but in the high way of Hebrews 2.