Hebrews: Jesus Briefly Humbled
Hebrews 2:9-10; Isaiah 45:22 — Look to Him! See Him as the One, Your Master, Your Savior, Your Friend, Your Healer. See Him as Your Lord, perfect in suffering!
“But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.”
Hebrews 2:9-10 NASB1995
The writer of Hebrews up to this point has been identifying a nameless being who is equal with God, is the Son of God, and is God but is also the Son of Man. His name is finally brought forward in verse 9. He who was made for a little while lower than the angels is Jesus. His suffering and death is crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
I like this commentary from Enduring Word. David Guzik uses the NKJV translation, which composes this passage a little differently. This commentary starts with the last part of verse 8 (I included the full verses so that you can see the differences in the text):
But now we do not yet see 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 honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
But now we do not yet see all things put under him: By all appearance the promise of Psalm 8:4-6 seems to be unfulfilled. We do not see that all things are subjected to man.
But we see Jesus: The promise is fulfilled in Jesus, who is Lord over all. Through Jesus, man can regain the dominion originally intended for Adam (Revelation 1:6, 5:10 and Matthew 25:21).
There are many things we will not understand until we see Jesus. The answers to life’s most perplexing questions are not found in asking “Why?” The greatest answer is a Who – Jesus Christ.
Some wish they might truly see Jesus with their natural eye, instead of the eye of faith. Yet, “Sight is very frequently used in Scripture as a metaphor, an illustration, a symbol, to set forth what faith is. Faith is the eye of the soul. It is the act of looking unto Jesus.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Think of how many who saw Jesus with the natural eye resisted Him, mocked Him, rejected Him. It’s better to see Jesus with the eye of faith than with the natural eye.
It does not say, “We can see Jesus” though that is true.
It does not say, “We have seen Jesus” though that was true of some in his day.
It does not say, “We shall see Jesus” though that is certainly true.
It says, we see Jesus, both now and continually. He is the focus, the center, the main aspect of our spiritual life.
So, look unto Jesus with the eye of faith – as imperfect as your vision of faith may be, look unto Him who is perfect.
See Him as the One who loves sinners and died for them.
See Him as your Savior.
See Him as your Master.
See Him as your Friend.
See Him as your Forerunner.
See Him as your Healer.
See Him at home, at work, out and about – not only here at worship times.
Who was made a little lower than the angels: This promise of dominion could only be fulfilled through the humility, suffering, and death of Jesus. The Son of God defeated the evil Adam brought into the world – which was death (Romans 5:12).
God gave man dominion over the earth, but man forfeited his power (not his right or authority) to take that dominion through sin, and the principle of death took away the power to rule. But Jesus came and through His humility and suffering He defeated the power of death and made possible the fulfillment of God’s promise that humans will have dominion over the earth – fulfilled both through Jesus’ own dominion, and the rule of believers with Him (Revelation 20:4).
Made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death: If God the Son did not add humanity to His deity, and in His humanity become a little lower than the angels, then He could never experience the suffering of death on our behalf.
Crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone: This tells us that the suffering of death for Jesus was only a prelude to being crowned with glory and honor. It also tells us that His death was, in some way, for everyone.
Precept Austin has a link to Charles Spurgeon’s testimony of faith. I won’t reproduce it here, but the key verse that was preached that day (January 6, 1850) in a primitive Methodist church near London that got Spurgeon’s attention was from Isaiah 45 (I highly recommend reading this testimony). This is the verse from the KJV translation that Spurgeon heard:
“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”
Isaiah 45:22 KJV
By faith and faith’s sight we look to Him. We’re not looking at a crucifix or a work of art or a worship band on a brightly-lit stage but are transcending mere physical sight to focus on Jesus. We just have to look!
Enduring Word also has good commentary on Isaiah 45:22:
Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth: This simple but powerful statement shows the plan of salvation.
It shows the simplicity of salvation: all we must do is look. “One can read many books on theology which expound all kinds of things in an attempt to show how man can reach God, but these theories are far from the truth. The Holy Spirit needs exactly four letters, two of them the same, to tell us what to do: l-o-o-k. That is all. It is the simplest, basic thing any person can do, yet the most difficult to do in daily living.” (Alan Redpath)
It shows the focus of salvation: we must look to God, and never to ourselves or to anything else of man. “Look unto ME, is His Word, which means looking away from the church because that will save nobody; away from the preacher because he can disappoint and disillusion you; away from all outward form and ceremony. You must look off from all this to the throne and there, in your heart, see the risen, reigning Lord Jesus Christ.” (Alan Redpath)
It shows the love behind salvation: God pleads with man, “Look to Me.”
It shows the assurance of salvation: and be saved.
It shows the extent of God’s saving love: all you ends of the earth!
Look to Me: In Numbers 21, the people of Israel were stricken by deadly snake bites, and Moses lifted up the image of a bronze serpent, raised on a pole, and the people who looked to it lived. The people were saved not by doing anything, but by simply looking to the bronze serpent. They had to trust that something as seemingly foolish as looking at such a thing would be sufficient to save them, and surely, some perished because they thought it too foolish to do such a thing.
So it says here in Isaiah: Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! We might be willing to do a hundred things to earn our salvation, but God commands us to only trust in Him – to look to Him.
“Wherever I am, however far off, it just says ‘Look!’ It does not say I am to see; it only says ‘Look!’ If we look on a thing in the dark we cannot see it, but we have done what we were told. So if a sinner only looks to Jesus, he will save him; for Jesus in the dark is as good as Jesus in the light, and Jesus when you cannot see him is as good as Jesus when you can. It is only ‘look!’ ‘Ah!’ says one, ‘I have been trying to see Jesus this year, but I have not seen him.’ It does not say see him, but ‘look unto him!’” (Charles Spurgeon)
Bless that Charles Spurgeon - what a way with words. That last quote from him in the Enduring Word commentary is so good! “..Jesus in the dark is as good as Jesus in the light, and Jesus when you cannot see him is as good as Jesus when you can.”
Now let’s look at Hebrews 2 verse 10:
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
First, I think a word study is in order. Author comes from the Greek adjective ἀρχηγός or archēgós (Strong’s G747), with the following Biblical usages:
the chief leader, prince
of Christ
one that takes the lead in any thing and thus affords an example, a predecessor in a matter, pioneer
the author
Some translations use the word “Captain” instead of author. Enduring Word is really hitting it out of the ballpark today. Here is their commentary on this verse:
For it was fitting: It was more than necessary – it was fitting for the sovereign God – for whom are all things and by whom are all things to be made perfect through sufferings in the task of bringing many sons to glory.
Conceivably, God could have engineered a way to save us that did not require the suffering of the Son of God. But it was fitting for Jesus to save us at the cost of His own agony.
This is the ultimate illustration of the fact that real love, real giving, involves sacrifice. As David said: nor will I offer… offerings to the LORD my God which costs me nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). God’s love for us had to show itself in sacrifice and God could not sacrifice unless He added humanity to His deity and suffered on our behalf.
The captain of their salvation: Jesus is the captain – the leader, the advance – of our salvation. This has wonderful implications:
A captain makes all the arrangements for the march, and Jesus makes all the arrangements for our progress as Christians.
A captain gives the commands to the troops – “Go” or “Stay” or “Do this.” Jesus commands us as our captain.
A captain leads the way and is an example to his men, and Jesus does this for us.
A captain encourages his men, and Jesus encourages us.
A captain rewards his troops, and Jesus rewards His followers.
“Now, seeing that it is the will of the Lord to lead us to glory by the Captain of our salvation, I want you to be worthy of your Leader. Do you not think that, sometimes, we act as if we had no Captain? We fancy that we have to fight our way to heaven by the might of our own right hand, and by our own skill; but it is not so. If you start before your Captain gives you the order to march, you will have to come back again; and if you try to fight apart from your Captain, you will rue the day.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Perfect through sufferings: There was nothing lacking in the deity of Jesus. Yet until He became a man and suffered, God never experienced suffering.
“To make perfect does not imply moral imperfection in Jesus, but only the consummation of that human experience of sorrow and pain through which he must pass in order to become the leader of his people’s salvation.” (Martin R. Vincent)
“We know that had he only been God yet still he would not have been fitted for a perfect Savior, unless he had become man. Man had sinned; man must suffer. It was man in whom God’s purposes had been for a while defeated; it must be in man that God must triumph over his great enemy.” (Charles Spurgeon)
The point is that it was fitting for the Father to do this, in the sense that it pleased the LORD to bruise Him (Isaiah 53:10), to do it for the sake of bringing many sons to glory.
Jesus had to experience it all so that we can perfectly trust in His perfection from His suffering:
Birth
Childhood and growing up and dangers from the enemy
Loss of others He loved (Joseph, John the Baptist and Lazarus)
Working His ministry and seeing many people suffering with a variety of ailments and problems and lack of hope
Being denied and rebuked by His kinsmen and the religious leaders
Mentoring stubborn and unseeing disciples (and knowing all along that one would betray Him, one would outright deny Him, and most of the rest would hide when He needed them most)
Being arrested and tortured, mocked and ridiculed
Suffering an agonizing death on a cross
Ray Stedman also has good commentary on this verse from Precept Austin:
The earthly life of Jesus is referred to in one phrase, made perfect through suffering. Was He not perfect when He came? When Jesus was a babe in Bethlehem’s manger, was He not perfect even then? When he was tempted in the desert and Satan tried to turn Him from the cross, was He not already perfect? When He was feeding the five thousand, in compassionate ministry to the hungry multitudes, was He not perfect? Why then does it say He must be perfected by suffering?
There are, of course, two perfections involved. He was perfect in His person all along. The Scriptures make this abundantly clear. But He was not yet perfect in His work. Some of you young people may be perfect in health, perfect in body, perfect in strength, perfect in the soundness of your humanity, but you are not yet perfect in the work you are called to do. Suppose Jesus Christ had come full-grown into the world a week before He died. Suppose He had never been born as a baby, had never grown up into adult life, but had stepped into the earth full-grown as a man. Suppose He had uttered in one week’s time the Sermon on the Mount, the Olivet discourse, the Upper Room discourse and all the teachings that we have from His lips recorded in Scripture. Imagine that He came on Monday and on Friday they took Him out and crucified Him, hanging Him on the cross, and that He died, just as it is recorded in the Scriptures, bearing the sins of the world. Would He still have been a perfect Saviour? Certainly He would have been perfect as far as bearing our guilt is concerned: that only required a sinless Saviour.
But He would not have been perfect as far as bearing our infirmities, our weaknesses, is concerned. He would have been able to fit us for heaven some day, but never able to make us ready for earth right now. In such a case we could always say (as too often we do say, anyway), “How can God expect me to live a perfect life in my situation? After all, I’m only human. Christ has never been where I am. What does He know of my pressures, what does He know of what I’m up against?” But He was made perfect through His suffering. He does know, He does know (Hebrews 2:5-18 The True Man)
WOW! I think these two verses have a lot of things packed into them! Look at Him and be assured that He knows your suffering and is the author of your salvation!
My next devotional is from Hebrews 2:11-13 - He who sanctifies and those He sanctifies are His brethren.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - This was an amazing journey through these two verses, being led to Isaiah and to the realization that Your life as the Son of Man was perfect in every way. Thank you for helping me to see You and to look at You as all that I need in this life. And I bring a prayer for healing again: Please help heal my eyesight; if it is not Your will to heal me, then help me and be with me to have a successful surgery in early December. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 10/18/2025 to review the lexicon for author.
Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik is used with written permission. Minor formatting changes have been made to improve readability.
Precept Austin was accessed on 10/18/2025 to review the commentary for Hebrews 2:9-10.