What does it mean that Jesus was a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7)?
Psalm 8 opens with wonder at God's glory in creation. David, gazing at the heavens, asks: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" The answer seems paradoxical — this insignificant creature is crowned with glory and set over all the works of God's hands. But Hebrews 2 reveals that the ultimate answer to David's question is a Person: "We see Jesus."
The Meaning of "Made Lower"
William Kelly notes in his translation of Psalm 8:6 a significant detail about the Hebrew:
William KellyAnd thou makest him a little lower than the angels... Or, God. It may also mean For a little-time lower, etc.
Both senses are fulfilled in Christ. He was made slightly lower in rank than the angels (taking on mortal flesh) and for a short time lower (the span of His earthly life, ending in death and resurrection).
Samuel Ridout draws out the contrast between what Christ was and what He became:
Samuel RidoutMan's place in the original scale of creation is a little lower than the place of angels. He, whom we know as Son of Man, was not in that lower place to begin with. He entered into it by an act of God. It was not what He was, but what He became. This lower and lowly place was His as ordered of Jehovah, and He took it that thereby He might become obedient to death.
Ridout presses the point that the Spirit of God guards both His deity and His humanity with equal care:
SR_Hebrews02In body, soul and spirit He was as absolutely and entirely a man as He was absolutely and entirely God also. Faith must always be careful, first of all, to hold the entire truth, to receive everything that God reveals, and then let the Spirit of God harmonize what may apparently seem a contradiction.
The Purpose: "For the Suffering of Death"
The critical phrase in Hebrews 2:9 is "for the suffering of death." Angels are spirit beings; they cannot die. For Christ to taste death, He had to take a place beneath them — entering into flesh and blood, into the weakness of human nature (though without sin).
Hamilton Smith brings this out clearly:
Hamilton SmithDavid says, "Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels." The Spirit of God says that Jesus was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." In a world where God has been dishonoured, the Son of Man perfectly glorified God and vindicated His holy character by suffering death. Man tastes death as the result of sin: the Son of Man tastes death by the grace of God. He tastes death for all, that grace might flow out to all.
From Rejection to Wider Glory
Psalm 2 presents Christ as King in Zion — but He was rejected in that character. Psalm 8 reveals that this rejection only threw Him into a wider glory. Instead of ruling merely over Israel, He would be set over all things.
J. N. Darby traces this progression:
J. N. DarbyIt is one made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned now with glory and honour, and set (which Hebrews 2 shows us is not yet accomplished) over all the works of God's hands. He could not be rejected as Christ... without His having a yet more glorious place destined to Him in the counsels of God — the being gloriously crowned in heaven, and set over all things.
In his notes on Hebrews 2, Darby identifies four purposes for which He was made lower:
four purposesFour distinct grounds may be noticed in the chapter for the humiliation of Jesus: it became God — there was His glory; the destruction of Satan's power; reconciliation or really propitiation by His death; and capacity for sympathy in priesthood.
Three Acts of God
F. B. Hole traces a striking threefold structure — past, present, and future — each an act of God:
F. B. HoleThree times over do we get an act of God in these verses: one for the past, one for the present, one for the future. Jehovah made Him a little lower than the angels. Jehovah has crowned Him with glory and honour. Jehovah will yet set Him over — or, make Him to have dominion over — the works of His hands, with all things under His feet, as the Psalm predicts.
Hole also draws a powerful contrast between the Son of man and "the man of the earth" (the Antichrist of Psalm 10):
Ps_8-10The man of the earth displays the apotheosis of human pride and lawlessness. The humbled Son of Man became the holy Servant of God to accomplish all His good pleasure. That pleasure included the tasting of death for all, and the triumphant bringing of many sons to glory, as Hebrews 2 reveals.
Believers Brought Higher Than Angels
W. W. Fereday draws out the breathtaking consequence — that through His humiliation and resurrection, Christ has lifted believers above the place of angels:
W. W. FeredayHe is the man who fills the mind of God; He is the ideal Son of man for whom all dominion is purposed. He having become man in His grace explains in the fullest way God's tender interest in our poor race. Having been made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, in resurrection He has brought man (i.e. believers) into a higher place and a nearer relationship to God than angels have ever known, or ever will know.
Synthesis
"Made a little lower than the angels" speaks of the incarnation and death of the eternal Son of God. He who was above all angels as their Creator (Hebrews 1) voluntarily took a place below them, entering into flesh and blood so that He could do what no angel ever could — suffer death. This was not a loss of His divine nature, but the taking of a human one alongside it.
The purpose was fourfold: to glorify God where man had dishonoured Him; to destroy the devil's power over death; to make propitiation for sins; and to become a merciful and faithful High Priest who, having suffered Himself, is able to succour those who are tempted.
But the humiliation was temporary. He who went lower than the angels is now crowned with glory and honour far above them, and the day is coming when all things without exception — not just Israel, not just the earth, but the entire universe — will be placed under His feet. Faith already sees this: "We see not yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour" (Hebrews 2:8-9).