Hebrews Chapter Two, Tasting Death

 

Mankind (male and female) has been crowned with glory and honor. We are made in God’s image, Genesis 1:26. God forbade idolatry. He commanded Israel, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth,” Exodus 20:4. While the boundaries of human government are demarcated in Genesis and Psalm 8, we find a parallel in Exodus.

All that man has been made to rule over is not to become a source of worship for us. Idolatry is the idea of replacing the uncreated, eternal God with a created thing, whether that is an object or concept, tangible or abstract. The threefold dominion of mankind is represented in this injunction. We are masters of the heavens above, the earth beneath, and the paths (or currents) of the sea and all that lives within them. Since God placed these things under our command it is folly to transform them into objects of worship. God created a likeness for Himself when He created humanity in our moral, intellectual and spiritual embodiments. The mandate to govern has sadly become the prohibition not to corrupt the created order with worship of things that were made. Does this prohibition cover the angels, too? Angels, like God Himself, are spirits and have no physical form, Hebrews 1:7, 14. To create an “image” of an angel then is to trespass into a sphere mankind knows pathetically little about. The appearances of angels in the Bible suggest that angels (holy or fallen) appear to mankind as is needed to accomplish an objective. It is not their “form,” because they don’t have one like we do.

 

Verse 8 refers to God’s command to subdue the earth. Herein is the foundation of genuine scientific pursuit. We see a glimpse of this in Solomon’s day, when we read, “Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish,” 1 Kings 4:33. This does not sound like poetic waxing of these various things, but a utilitarian perspective regarding their place and purpose. Again we find the observance of the resources furbished by the earth (trees, etc.) and land animals, birds and fish. Solomon’s wisdom apparently involved the natural sciences, verse 34. Scientific endeavor can have a logical, feasible premise when one considers the reality and presence of a creator God. Because there is God, and because God is a being of order, we find the universe orderly and capable of being researched and explored with genuine findings leading to testable, predicable results.

 

Continuing, we are told that God did not leave anything outside the sphere of human control when He created mankind as His stewards. However, there is a discrepancy to what we are told in the Bible and what we experience daily. “We do not yet see all things put under him.” I don’t believe this passage refers to a future event that reveals the hidden extent of what man is to reign over. Rather, this passage addresses the, “world to come,” from verse 5. In short, we do not yet see all things put under him in the sense that someone may be called an heir to the throne, but has not as of yet begun to reign.

 

The world is contrary to humanity. The elements are unpredictable and often merciless. The animal kingdom is far from benign. Oceanic exploration is grudging, with much of earth’s ocean depths yet unexplored. So the Bible states that humanity has been given the ministry of a stewardship, but we find ourselves in hostile territory. Human government is corrupt. The family is being redefined and summarily destroyed. The planet is being plundered of natural resources unapologetically. Natural disasters reveal the curse in nature. Wars reveal the curse in human thinking. Extinction reveals the curse in the animal kingdoms we were meant to responsibly keep. We do not yet see all things put under mankind.

 

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

 

While we do not see all things currently put in subjection to us, we see Jesus. Psalm 8:5 is most appropriately fulfilled in the person of Christ, the representative Man. To become human, Jesus was made, like mankind, a little lower than the angels. Note that this does not mean Jesus is a created being. The concept being discussed right now is positional, not in terms of when someone or something came to be. The word, “for,” indicates why this happened. Jesus took on human likeness for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. As mankind was given glory and honor at God’s behest as beings made in His likeness, charged with a stewardship, Christ’s glory differs. The ministry of His first advent was one of atonement.

 

The conclusive remarks of this verse are profound, and we should meditate upon them. Don’t gloss over Scripture, or we can lose or confuse its meaning. His redemptive sacrifice on the cross was through the agency of God’s grace. The Father provided the Son as the Lamb to put away the sin of mankind. The Son is the Redeemer that would restore all things and make man upright once more. Jesus, by God’s grace, tasted death for everyone. The language here is difficult to misunderstand. Everyone is a pronoun that means, according to Oxford, “every person.” From Adam to the final human being on earth before the restoration of all things, Christ’s death on the cross was to taste death for that person. Every person. All people, of all times, regardless of nation, ethnicity, age, gender, etc. This verse does not teach Calvinist election. It teaches that Jesus paid the price for humanity’s sin, so that through Him we all might have life in His name.

 

But what does, “taste,” mean? The same Greek term, “georgeo,” is used in Hebrews 6:4, 5 as well, when we read, “For it impossible for those who…have tasted the heavenly gift…and have tasted the good word of God.” The word in this instance, as it is found in Hebrews 2:9, means, “to experience good or evil.” Again, the same term is employed by Peter when he writes, “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious,” 1 Peter 2:3. In Peter, as well as in Hebrews chapter 6, the “tasting” denotes experiencing or partaking of God’s promise and power. In Peter, the verse could potentially be rendered, “if indeed you have experienced the Lord’s grace.”

 

For our Lord, we find that He has tasted death for everyone. He has experienced the Lake of Fire and separation from God the Father on our behalf. Jesus tasted death for everyone so that through Him all might be saved. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life…And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself,” John 3:14, 15, 12:32. The word “peoples,” in John 12:32 is not present in the KJV or NKJV manuscript, as the italicized wording indicates. The verse literally states, “I will draw all to Myself.” Christ explained to Nicodemus that He would be lifted up from the earth, and that because of this event anyone who placed their faith in Him would receive as a gift of God’s grace, eternal life. In John 12:32 Jesus further explained that He would, upon His death, draw all people to Himself. Like “everyone,” let us permit “all” to simply be the inclusive word that it is, see 1 John 2:2, 4:10.