v 9 What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honour.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.
There is danger in focussing on the wrong thing – so here we discover God’s focal point. There are all kinds of ideas, doctrines, theories and religious ceremonies upon which we might focus. But the writer directs our attention to Jesus throughout this letter. Everything to do with salvation and future glory comes into focus when we learn to put Jesus at the centre of the whole Christian message. We learn to see everything through the lens of Jesus. So here are the three vital facts through which the writer portrays th. e character and work of Jesus.
His Incarnation: for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; in fact He fully shared in our humanity. He is not a remote and unfeeling being who remained aloof from His creation; He was not exempt from the aches and pains, heartaches and hurts that humans experience. It is so hard to convey the idea that Jesus was fully human and yet fully divine.
And then ‘ he suffered death for us ‘. Not only the pain and anguish of so early a death; but also knowing that it was for us that He suffered, carrying the pain and the stigma of my sin.
Only then can we fully focus on the end point of the story, he is now “crowned with glory and honour”. He is the one sitting at God’s right hand waiting until the climactic point of creation is reached and everything is swept up in the new creation.
It is when we deliberately set our focus there that other things – all the trivia that easily fills our minds and imagination – suddenly shrink into the eternal perspective.
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