"The Holiest of All" part XII

WE SEE JESUS CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR
Hebrews 2: 8 - 9  But now we see not yet all things subjected to Him. But we behold Him who has been made a Little lower than the angels (for a short time), even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with Glory and Honor.
SECOND SECTION
Hebrews 2: 5-18.
Jesus as man more than the Angels.
The Reasons of His Humiliation.

Written by Pastor Andrew Murray

What a glorious contrast! We see not yet all things subjected to him, that is, to man: but--- what is far better---we see Jesus Crowned with Glory and Honor. When we look round upon this world, with all its sin and misery, it does indeed not appear as if man was destined to be higher than the angels, and to have dominion over all the works of God's hands. But when we remember that Jesus became Man, that He might taste death for all men, and that He, a Man upon the Throne, now Lives as our Surety, our Redeemer, and our Head, it is enough if we see Him Crowned with Glory and Honor. In that we have the pledge that He will one day bring man to that Glory and Honor too. In that we have the assurance that He is using all that Glory and Honor even now on our behalf. We see not yet all things subjected to man, but--- we see Jesus Crowned with Honor and Glory. Blessed contrast!

The right knowledge and use of this antithesis is the secret of the life of faith. We see not yet all things subjected to Him--- how exactly this expresses the disappointment and failure which is often the experience of the believer when his first joy and hope begin to pass away. He finds that sin is stronger than he knew; that the power of the world and the flesh and self are not yet made subject to him as he had hoped. At times it is as if he feels that the promises of God, and the expectations they raised in his heart, are vain. Or else, if he
acknowledges that God is indeed faithful to fulfill them, the way for one who is as weak as he is, and in his circumstances, to obtain these promises is too hard. The promises of God, to put all things in subjection to us and make us more than conquerors, are indeed most precious, but, alas, ever again the bitter experience comes--- man sees not yet all things subjected to him.

Blessed the man who knows, then, in living faith to say: But we see Jesus Crowned with Glory and Honor. Blessed is the man who knows to look away from all that he finds in himself of imperfection and failure, to look up and behold all the Perfection and Glory he finds in Jesus! Yes, blessed is the man who finds his delight and his life in meeting every disappointment and every difficulty with the Blessed: But---we see Jesus Crowned with Glory and Honor. This is all I need! This satisfies the soul, and gives it peace and joy and strength.

The Epistle is about to expound to us the great mystery, why the Son of God was made a little lower than the angels. It was that, by the Grace of God, He might taste death for every man, and so open up again the entrance into God's presence and favor. The necessity and meaning of His sufferings and death it will present to us in three different aspects. The first ( 5: 10), that in suffering and death Christ Himself must needs be made perfect, so that as our Leader He might open up to us the path of perfection, and prepare that New Nature, that New Way of Living, in which we are to be led to Glory. The second (14, 15), that through death, making propitiation for sin, He might destroy the devil, with his power of death, and give us a perfect deliverance from all fear of it. And the third (16-18), that in what He suffered, He might be made a merciful and faithful High Priest, able to secure our perfect confidence, and to give us the succor (aid, help) we need. But before the writer thus unfolds the meaning of Christ's humiliation, he first points to His Glory. It is this which constitutes the excellency of the New Testament, which gives our faith its power of endurance and victory; we see Jesus now at the right hand of the Majesty of God. Let us hold this fast as the chief thought of the Epistle, as the one great lesson the Hebrews, and all feeble backsliding Christians, need: Jesus, who suffered for us; Jesus who in His suffering as our Leader, opened a Way to God for us; Jesus who sympathizes with us--- this Jesus is Crowned with Honor and Glory. To see Him is to know that we have all we can need.

Would you, my reader, give more abundant heed to the great Salvation? would you experience how completely Jesus is able to save? Do you long for just as much of the Love and the Presence, the Holiness and the Joy and the power of God in you as there is in Jesus for you? Here you have the secret of it all! Amid all sin and weakness, all darkness and doubt, all failure and perplexity, hold fast this one Truth, engage in this one exercise of faith: We see not yet all things subjected to man, but we see Jesus Crowned with Honor and Glory. This gives peace, and victory, and joy unspeakable.

And if you would know how thus ever to have the heart turned to Jesus, remember, He came to save His people from their sins. It is the heart that is weary of itself and its sins, that fully accepts the fact of the utter corruption and the utter helplessness of all that is of the old nature and of self, that will find itself attracted with strong desire to this mighty Redeemer. In such a heart Jesus, the Crowned One, will not only be a distant object, but, by the Holy Spirit, an indwelling presence. The coming of the Holy Spirit is inseparably connected with, is our only proof of, the glorifying of Jesus (John 7: 38, 39; 16: 14; 17: 10), is our only real  participation in the blessings that flow from it. Let all our worship of Him, Crowned with Glory and Honor, be in the faith that the Pentecostal Spirit glorifies Him in us, so that our whole inner being is filled with His presence.

1. Jesus, made a little lower than the angels (for a short time). Jesus, because of the suffering of death, Crowned with Glory and Honor. Look not only at the glory, but look well at the place of its birth, at the Way in which it was gained. It is in the Way in which you are walking now. Learn to welcome humiliation and suffering as the seed, the power out of which the Glory is brought forth, as the Way in which Jesus in Glory is preparing you for the Glory.
2. We see Jesus Crowned with Glory and Honor. Let every experience of the contrast we see not yet all things subject to man become a call and a motive and a help to turn to Jesus. Let us take time and gaze and worship until our whole soul is filled with the faith: this life of humiliation is the bud of the Glory everlasting: Jesus in Glory is proof that it is so, the pledge that it will be so with us. Be this our life: We see Jesus, because of the suffering of death, Crowned with Glory and Honor.