Why Did He Suffer Death's Bitterness
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted
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Paul is continuing his discourse on the fact that Jesus, the God-Man, is not only the Messiah but also God in the flesh by contrasting Him with the government and ministry of angels. Remember that his audience were Hebrew believers suffering tremendously for leaving Judaism to follow Christ. This means that Paul is also comparing the ministry of the Old Covenant in contrast to the ministry of the New Covenant. The old was given through the aid of angels; the new through God Himself in the flesh.
5 For God will not place the coming world, of which we speak, under the government of angels. 6 But the Scriptures affirm:
What is man that you would even think about him,
or care about Adam’s race.
7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while.
You placed your glory and honor
upon his head as a crown.
And you have given him dominion
over the works of your hands,
8 For you have placed everything under his authority.
This means that God has left nothing outside the control of his Son, even if presently we have yet to see this accomplished. 9 But we see Jesus, who as a man, lived for a short time lower than the angels and has now been crowned with glorious honor because of what he suffered in his death. For it was by God’s grace that he experienced death’s bitterness on behalf of everyone!
We’ll get back to the idea of a “government of angels” later because it’s worthy of exploring. Instead, we see that Paul is revealing the Scriptures (Psalm 8 to be exact) prophesied of a restoration of authority to man.
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
Let’s break down this psalm for a better understanding. First is the word “man.” It’s not the traditional word “mankind” or “adam” in the Hebrew or the Hebrew word for a gentleman or even a warrior. Instead, David uses a Hebrew word (enos) that might have been derived from another word (anas) that means “to be weak or sick.” Why? He is emphasizing man’s frailty in comparison to the angels (elohim in the Hebrew, which we’ll get to).
Mindful (mazkiyr) means “to remember, to mention, to recall, to think about, to think on, to be remembered, to recall, to acknowledge, to mention, to make known. The basic meaning indicates a process of mentioning or recalling either silently, verbally, or by means of a memorial sign or symbol.” The word “mindful” is a good one. David is pondering the incredible idea that the God of the universe is even thinking about weak, sick with sin, frail man. But it gets even better.
He next uses the phrase “son of man,” which is “ben adam.” Ben is “the direct male offspring of human parents.” Man is “adam,” which is “mankind” translating into “son of mankind,” which was the PREFERRED title Jesus used of Himself. Why? Because only a “son of mankind” could restore the authority lost. David goes even farther with the word visit.
Visit is “paqad” and means “to attend, to visit, and to search out. The word refers to someone (usually God) paying attention to persons, either to do them good or to bring punishment.” Attend in the dictionary means “to take care of; minister to; devote one's services to” and “to pay attention; listen or watch attentively; direct one's thought; pay heed.” This is EXACTLY was the Son of Man did. He attended to us, visited us, and searched us out!”
Right now as mankind, we are a little lower than the angels. That changes at the resurrection (. But this was NOT God’s original design nor intent. The word “made” reveals this. It means “to be lacking, to be needy, to decrease. In general, it refers to a FAILURE of something to be fully complete, whole, sufficient.” It’s like an empty jar, lack of rain, or decrease in numbers. Anything that is decreasing or lacking fits within the idea of this word. I believe this is the post-fall state of mankind.
Listen to the Passion commentary on this verse:
See Ps. 8:4–6. The Aramaic can be translated “Who is man that you would give a thought toward him, for whom the Son of Man should be pledged [to be offered for them].” The phrase “son of man” is used in the New Testament consistently for Jesus Christ, the “Son of Man.” The Hebrew text of Ps. 8 refers to man being made a little lower than Elohim (God), which can also mean “mighty angels.” This seemed to be a problem to the translators of the Septuagint, so they rendered it “lower than angels.” Hebrews seems to closely follow the Septuagint; however, the Greek text of Hebrews changes the quotation to read “a little while lower.”
3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?
God became the Son of Man where He was temporarily (only as a Man) a little lower than the angels due to physically being a Man but still positioned as God in heavenly places. I.e. He never ceased being God but instead chose to live as a Man implying that He interacted with His angelic beings as a Man not as God. That must have been really strange for them. But it gets even more interesting.
Angels is Elohim in the Hebrew. Elohim is the “plural” name of God not implying that there is more than one God in the Trinity but that He is a three-person God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All of them operate in absolute unity as One. If this verse is translated “you have made him a little lower than God,” this implies that our original creation was superior to angelic beings and that Jesus chose to be made a a “little lower” than God. The word “little” means “a small amount, a few, a short time.” All of these would apply.
6 He existed in the form of God, yet he gave no thought to seizing equality with God as his supreme prize. 7 Instead he emptied himself of his outward glory by reducing himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human! 8 He humbled himself and became vulnerable, choosing to be revealed as a man and was obedient. He was a perfect example, even in his death—a criminal’s death by crucifixion!
For a short while Jesus made Himself lower! This is incredible! Stunning! Why? For us! Whether it’s lower than God or lower than angels, it doesn’t matter. The Son of Man humbled Himself by becoming one of us! I love the Aramaic of Heb. 2:5.
“The Aramaic can be translated “Who is man that you would give a thought toward him, for whom the Son of Man should be pledged [to be offered for them].”
Made in verse 6 is different than the one in verse 5. This made is “masal” and is “a verb denoting to rule, to reign, or to have dominion over” the workmanship of His hands. Here it is clearly referring to the creation. God gave us dominion over the earth and all He created and put all things in subjection to us.
Listen to the Passion comments on this:
Or “you subjected all things under his feet.” The command given to both Adam and Eve to “take dominion” (Gen. 1:28) has never been rescinded. The planet will one day be under the rulership of men and women who are under the rulership of Christ.
Only those who are BORN AGAIN after the image of JESUS THE CHRIST will once again have dominion over the earth and all in it. Even now He rules in the midst of His enemies through us. But the COMPLETE dominion over all the earth will not occur until all is said and done.
To reiterate, I’m not saying that Jesus was ever lower than God in essence. Jesus is and was 100% God. But He chose to temporarily be born as a Man, which is why He called Himself “the Son of Man” so many times. It was a legality issue for only a Man could take back the dominion that man gave away, which is why Paul says, “This means that God has left nothing outside the control of His Son, even if presently we have yet to see this accomplished.”
9 But we see Jesus, who as a man, lived for a short time lower than the angels and has now been crowned with glorious honor because of what he suffered in his death. For it was by God’s grace that he experienced death’s bitterness on behalf of everyone!
Listen to the footnote on “by God’s grace” in the Passion:
A few manuscripts and some external evidence has instead “he, apart from God [separated from God], tasted death.” This could be taken to mean that he experienced death only in his humanity and not in his divinity. The Aramaic can be translated “God himself, by his grace, experienced death in the place of every person.”
The NKJV says that He “tasted” death. Tasted means “to experience, probably focusing on personal involvement.” This is again astounding. God became on of us and experienced temptation in “all points” as we have so that we could have a High Priest who truly understood and then He experienced death personally on our behalf so that He could conquer it’s sting, which is why it’s so crucial to die well and not buy into the lie of dying from disease. This idea of temptation also debunks the ridiculous idea that we have to experience something in order to help others. Since Jesus already has and we have His Spirit in us, He can empower and equip us to minister to others even when we’ve not experienced what they have. And if we have, He will use that to our advantage.
God is not a hands-off God; He’s a hands-on God!
But back to the idea of “he, apart from God [separated from God], tasted death” meaning He only experienced this in His humanity. It reminds me of something He said on the cross.
45 For three hours, beginning at noon, darkness came over the earth. 46 And at three o’clock Jesus shouted with a mighty voice in Aramaic, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”—that is, “My God, My God, why have you deserted me?”
The word “forsaken from Psalm 22:1 that Jesus quoted means “to separate oneself from another person.” Helping’s primary meaning is “to rescue from distress or danger.” Jesus was allowed to feel the utter helplessness of death and separation from God that all mankind feels. But, again, now in Christ our death doesn’t have to be that way. He removed the sting by experiencing the sting and then being resurrected!
55 “O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
He experienced the “process of dying” for everyone! In a number of languages, there are distinctions made for how one dies. Use of death in one instance might refer to dying of old age, another of sickness, and another death caused by violence. Jesus took sickness away by His stripes and He suffered a violent death to remove it’s sting; therefore even when we die of old age, it should be peaceful with no suffering! He covered all of the bases!
The Government of Angels
The Government of Angels
Psalm 82 and 86. “under the government of angels.” And Heiser’s work. And 1 Cor. 6:3-judging angels.