bject to
bondage. For verily not of angels doth He take hold, but He taketh
hold of the seed of Abraham. Wherefore it behoved Him in all things
to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and
faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath
suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted"
(HEB. ii. 5-18, R.V.).

The Son is better than the angels, not only because He is the Revealer
of God, but also because He represents man. We have to do with more than
spoken promises. The salvation through Christ raises man to a new
dignity, and bestows upon him a new authority. God calls into existence
a "world to come," and puts that world in subjection, not to angels, but
to man.

The passage on the consideration of which we now enter is difficult,
because the interpretation offered by some of the best expositors,
though at first sight it has the appearance of simplicity, really
introduces confusion into the argument. They think the words of the
Psalmist,[17] as applied by the Apostle, refer to Christ only. But the
Psalmist evidently contrasts the frailty of man with the authority
bestowed upon him by Jehovah. Mortal man has been set over the works of
God's hand. Man is for a little inferior to the angels; yet he is
crowned with glory and honour. The very contrast between his frailty and
his dignity exalts the name of his Creator, Who judges not as we judge.
For He confronts His blasphemers with the lisping of children, and weak
man He crowns king of creation, in order to put to shame the wisdom of
the world.[18]

We cannot suppose that this is said of Christ, the Son of God. But there
are two expressions in the Psalm that suggested to St. Paul[19] and the
author of this Epistle a Messianic reference. The one is the name "Son
of man;" the other is the action ascribed to God: "Thou hast made him
lower than the angels." The word[20] used by the Seventy, whose
translation the Apostle here and elsewhere adopts, means, not, as the
Hebrew, "to create lower," but "to bring from a more exalted to a
humbler condition." Christ appropriated to Himself the title of "Son of
man;" and "to lower from a higher to a less exalted position" applies
only to the Son of God, Whose pre-existence is taught by the Apostle in
chap. i. The point of the Apostle's application of the Psalm must,
therefore, be that