Dominion
"But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." Hebrews 2:9
Main Readings: Revelation 21-22:5 & Hebrews 2
Supporting Readings: Psalm 8 & Genesis 3
There’s a world – and we live in it – that is perishing.
That’s not my choice of word - though I embrace it. It’s God’s choice – and that’s why I embrace it.
In chapter 1, he said that the very foundations of the earth and all the heavens above were set in place by Jesus. But he then said, ‘they will perish’.
Jesus will never perish, but they will.
Does that mean annihilation is the fate of the world we now live in? No.
Rather, God says, that the world Jesus made will be changed.
He says, like a person taking off one garment and putting on another, it will be changed.
That shows that there is the world – the one we live in now. And there is a new version of this world coming in the future.
And it’s that thought which remains on the mind of the author of Hebrews as he now comes into verse 5 of chapter 2.
He says, ‘It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to comeabout which we are speaking’.
You see, we are still talking about the world to come as we come into verse 5 of chapter 2 – even though, chapter 2, verse 1-4 seemed likewe had moved on from that.
God’s word to us in verse 5 is ‘no, we’re still talking about the world to come’. ‘And the first thing we should know about the world to come is: it’s not for angels to rule over’.
Angels were a big deal in chapter 1. We came away from there, in no doubt that, Jesus is greater than angels.
Then, in verse 1 of chapter 2 we got reminded that Jesus, who isgreater than the angels, mustn’t be drifted from.
In fact, we must pay the most careful attention to Jesus so that we don’t drift from him.
And now we’re going to learn how it will be so good for us if we don’t drift away from him – but remain steadfastly centered on him for the rest of our lives here.
It would make total sense, wouldn’t it, if in verse 5, he told us that the world to come hasn’t been earmarked for the dominion of angels but for the dominion of Jesus?
I think it would.
In that case, this would read like a continuation of chapter 1.
‘Jesus is superior to angels, therefore the world to come is reserved for Jesus’ dominion, not for angel’s dominion’. I think that would make perfect sense.
And yet, that’s not where he goes! And it’s surprising to us, I think, that he doesn’t.
So where does he go? Who is the world to come designed for? To whom will it be subjected? And who will reign over it?
That’s the question that dominates this passage before us. And the answer is truly amazing!
But let’s ask first: what does he mean by the phrase ‘world to come’?
The writer expounds it a little for us in chapter 12 when he says:
‘But now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens”. The words, “once more” indicate the removingof what can be shaken – that is created things – so that what cannotbe shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdomthat cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe’.
It sounds like God is going to remove everything about this created order - which can be shaken - and is going to establish an unshakablekingdom.
It sounds like, what we live in now which, we know has all the hallmarks of being temporary, is going to be replaced by God with something permanent.
A physical world, and universe, which will be new, unshakable, and ruled. ‘Kingdom’ implies rule, doesn’t it?
So, within Hebrews itself, we can establish that God has designed, and will bring about, a new world. The author of Hebrews calls it the ‘world to come’ here in verse 5.
And it’s not for angels to dominate. So, who is it for?
Verse 6 is for answering that question. And from what he says, it very much sounds like we are the ones to whom God has subjected the world to come.
Imagine if that were true! It would be a spectacular claim.
Just think about it for a minute.
A whole new imperishable world made to be dominated – we could say ‘ruled’ – by God’s people.
Just think how radically different that sounds to right now!
Right now, we’re subject to this world in just about every way we can think of, aren’t we?
We’re subject to death. We’re subject to natural disasters. We’re subject to the curse of disease and sickness. We’re subject to climate. And to the animal kingdom. We’re subject to fatigue. And to the limits of time. We’re subject to inflation and the cost of living. And to work. And the decay of everything around us. We’re subject to tragedy. And uncontrollable circumstances. And so many more things!
But what if we’re the ones who God intends to put all of those thingsunder in the future?
What if there’s a world to come – like the writer says – where we reign and dominate it, and not the other way around. Wouldn’t that be unspeakably wonderful and great?!
Well, that is what he’s saying.
And to show us that it is the case, he turns to Psalm 8 in verse 6 here and quotes from it. He says, ‘There is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?”’
That ‘place’ is Psalm 8 and that ‘someone’ is king David.
And these words of David that he quotes come on the back of David simply marveling at what God has made.
Specifically, the heavens which are the ‘work of God’s fingers’, he says. And the moon and the stars which God has set in place.
David says, the glory and magnitude of the heavens at large - the stars and the moon specifically - tell us something about the affection God has for people!
If God is mindful of people when he has made such amazing and wonderous works like the sun and the moon, people must be a very special part of his creation!
Therefore, ‘what is mankind that you are mindful of us Lord?’ ‘What is a son or a daughter of God that you care for them?’
What is it causing the writer to ask these questions?
It is surely chapter 1, verse 14: ‘Are not all angels ministering spirits sent by God to serve those Christians who will inherit salvation?’
You see! It isn’t angels who inherit the world to come! Angels are servants of God who serve Christians who are going to inherit the world to come…
People who are going to be saved from the very same fate this world we occupy now is going to suffer.
And it leads him to wonder at God’s mindfulness of human beings, that he cared enough for them to send Jesus into the world to savethem.
We saw this last time.
We have to pay attention to Jesus, because it is by Jesus that God has cared for us. He has been mindful of us with the provision of a ‘great salvation’ that results in an inheritance in the world to come.
In fact, God cares so much about us, that even after we’ve entered into this great salvation, through Jesus, he has sent his angels to serveour needs between now and getting there!
How amazingly good is this?!
There is literally nothing else in creation that gets the kind of provision that God’s people get! Not animals. Not stars! Not the moon or the sun! Nothing in this creation gets the attention God has shown people, by sending Jesus into the world to save!
When the day comes for God to overhaul everything that can be shaken: everything – the sun and the moon, the stars, the animals, the livestock, the fish of the sea – will be removed and replaced. But not people for whom Jesus came!
You know what? We’ll really feel the magnitude of this care that God has for people – and especially his people – when we consider the situation as it exists now.
Because then we’ll see the contrast.
Verse 7 continues the quotation from Psalm 8. He hasn’t finished with that yet.
He says, ‘You made them [that is people] a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honour’. He goes on in verse 8. ‘And put everything under their feet’.
When David said, ‘You made them’. He means, ‘God, you created people in the beginning, and it looked a certain way’.
So how did it look?
Well, men and women, as they were when God created them, were lower than the angels – David says, ‘a little lower’.
What does that mean?
It means that, like the angels, people were created perfect. But in their being, they didn’t quite possess the same power as the angels.
It doesn’t mean that God valued them less.
In fact, in light of everything that’s being said here, it seems like God valued them more.
He made them in his own image. That is not said of the angels.
So, same in purity; slightly lower in power; but no less, and actually maybe more, in value.
So precious were people to God in the beginning that David describes them as being ‘crowned with glory and honour’. And he certainly means, ‘crowned’ by God.
Now ‘crowns’ signify dominion, don’t they? Because, after all, it’s kingswho wear crowns.
And kings dominate their domains. So, David reveals that when God made his people, he made them with dominion.
Which is why the very next thing David says is that ‘God put everything under their feet’.
So, you’ve got powerful angels, then you’ve got people – so so precious to God and made in his image – and then you’ve got all of the rest of creation under the feet of those people.
Creation didn’t rule over Adam and Even in the beginning. They ruled over it!
And the writer of Hebrews comments that, ‘In putting everything under them, God left nothing that was not subject to them’ – verse 8.
All the animals, all the livestock, all the fish and the birds – everythingwas made subject to people who were crowned with glory and honour by God.
It’s not surprising then that Adam could name all the animals.
They all came to him - like he was king of the earth - and receivedtheir name. And they were honoured to receive a name from the king over the creation.
And when Adam turned his hand to the soil, to the flower, to the tree, all of them yielded to him. It was not difficult for him because the land yielded its fruit to him readily.
This is how it was in the beginning.
But the author of Hebrews then points out something that is both true and desperately sad.
He says it like this: ‘Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them’.
In other words, the situation now is radically different to what it was like in the beginning. And we know that’s the case because of sin.
We know that when Adam sinned, the curse of death took hold. ‘Cursed is the ground because of you Adam’ God said. ‘Through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you areand to dust you will return’.
That is a tragic proclamation. Maybe THE most tragic of allproclamations ever made.
It effectively is God consigning humanity to the dominion of creation. Can you hear that?
The curse that entered with Adam’s sin turns creation on its head. It gives the rest of creation the upper hand on people. Because, eventually the dust of the earth receives its people back into it.
That is not how it was meant to be!
Adam was never meant to return to the dust. But, after the fall, the dust wins back over Adam.
We do not now see everything subject to people, like it was in the beginning.
We see people subject to death. Subject to heat-stroke. Subject to starvation. Subject to hard work. Subject to sickness. Subjected over and over again!
We see them in this never-ending fight for survival. Not kings. Notcrowned with glory and honour. But cloaked in death and shame.
And what the writer of Hebrews is trying to get us to see is that there is a gulf between where we are right now and the idea that one day, in the future, we could, somehow, be people to which a whole new world is subject!
As if God was starting over and making people to have dominion over the creation once again!
And instead of angels – who, let’s face it, aren’t just a little bitabove human beings now; they’re leagues above human beings since this curse came about – that, instead of the world to come being subject to them, that it would, somehow, be subject to us!
I mean how can we conceive that this could be in any way even remotely possible?
What manner of transformation would need to come about for that kind of thing to become a reality?!
He wants us to be asking that question of ourselves right now!
According to verses 5 & 6, then, when they are put together, the expectation is that God will one day give you and me a new world to rule over – like Adam did in the beginning!
And according to verses 7 & 8, that just seems completely and utterly implausible!
I hope you feel that! He wants us to feel it!
Because, by feeling it, verse 9 becomes THE sweetest word you can possibly imagine!
That word at the beginning of verse 9 smacks us around the face and stuns us, if we got the flow of verses 5 to 8 properly!
‘But we do see Jesus’.
We don’t know why we see Jesus yet, but we know what we’ve seen up to now – nothing but decline!
But now Jesus is on the scene. What does he look like?
‘Who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour’.
So, this sounds a lot like Adam, right?
Adam, was made a little lower than the angels in the beginning when he was also crowned with glory and honour. It sounds like Jesus is becoming a lot like Adam.
But there’s also difference isn’t there? Notice that!
It’s ‘now’ that we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour.
First made a lower than the angels for a little while. And now crowned with glory and honour.
So, like Adam, but different from Adam. What’s going on?
Well, Jesus was made by God – like Adam – to be lower than the angels.
That is not something he was by nature. Goodness! Have we forgotten chapter 1! He is greater than all the angels!
But for a little while – made to be lower than the angels.
The word ‘made’ here doesn’t mean created lower than the angels. Jesus is not created. He is creator! We saw that in chapter 1 too!
Everlasting Son – that’s who Jesus is. So not created.
‘Made’ also doesn’t mean forced or coerced into a lower position than the angels. No one makes Jesus do anything.
If he lays down his life – no one takes it from him, right? He lays it down of his own accord. So ‘made’ doesn’t mean strong-armed either.
‘Made’ means ‘positioned’ here. He was positioned a little lower than the angels.
How was that done?
It was done by him coming in flesh - in the likeness of a human being.
And when we say that, we mean in a body subject to the curse of death the same way we all are.
We understand that he made himself nothing and was found to be lower than the angels.
Lower than the angels, like Adam, yes.
But not crowned with glory and honour like Adam. Actually, laying his glory and honour aside as he came into the world.
But now crowned with glory and honour. That’s different you see!
Adam had glory and honour and he lost it – squandered it.
Jesus, on his entry into the world, did not have glory and honour, but now has it!
How?
The writer says it like this: ‘because he suffered death, so that, by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone’.
The glory and the honour, he’s talking about, are conferred on Jesus because of his death.
And you say, ‘well we all die’.
Yes, but Jesus didn’t stay dead. We all die, and we stay dead. Jesus didn’t. Jesus rose from the dead. And then he ascended into heaven.
And there, he took his rightful place at the right hand of the Father.
‘To which of the angels did God ever say, “sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?”’ – chapter 1, verse 13.
You see, God is well pleased with his Son’s work.
His work is delightful to God and therefore, God has exalted Jesus to the highest place. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
He is now, crowned with glory and honour because he – the Son of God – suffered death.
So, it is Jesus then, to whom the world to come is subjected. Ultimately.
Surely God is saying he is worthy. For he is saying he is crownedwith glory and honour.
And that is certainly true.
There is no doubt that Jesus will be King of kings and Lord of lords in the world to come. Listen: ‘But about the Son, God says, your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom’ – chapter 1, verse 8.
But all this certainly also alerts us to what we heard earlier from chapter 12.
When it said, ‘since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe’.
Chapter 1, verse 8 the Son has an everlasting throne and kingdom. In chapter 12, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Andwe have seen, we certainly belong to Jesus if we have received his death on our behalf!
And now here, in his final word in verse 9 he says: ‘so that by the grace of God, Jesus might taste death for everyone’.
Jesus came. Was made lower than the angels. Died. And is risen. And reigning now, until he receives his kingdom – namely, ‘the world to come’.
That death he died was a taste of death he made on behalf of people.
When the author says ‘everyone’, he certainly doesn’t mean Jesus tasted death on behalf of every individual.
If that were so, he wouldn’t need to worry about anybody drifting away from Jesus.
No. What is meant by ‘everyone’ is humanity as opposed to animals, plants, fish, birds, or anything else in creation. Jesus came to taste death for people!
And this tasting death accomplishes something massive!
It accomplishes the ‘great salvation’ we heard of last week.
His tasting death for people removes from them that very thing – the curse of death! He took their curse upon himself.
That’s why the writer calls it the ‘grace of God’.
Everyone is going to get, in the end, what Adam got – death.
But Jesus came and got the death we deserved on our behalf – that’s grace! That’s undeserved favour!
Have you encountered this grace of God in Jesus’ death? If not, todaycan be the day you do!
And it’s that grace; that removal of the curse; that great salvation,that translates us into partakers, with Jesus, of the kingdom to come!
It’s not a glory we seize for ourselves apart from Jesus. It is the glory he has won for us, and into which he is bringing us.
We will reign with him and under his perfect kingliness, enjoying that world with him, forever.
So, it is really us that verse 5 is speaking of when it says, ‘it is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking’. No, it is not! It is us. Amazing!
It is to Jesus that God has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking. And because we are in him – through faith in his death-removing curse for us – we also are those whom God has chosen to subject his new world to!
Because of Jesus, a day is coming when we will no longer be subject to creation, but like Adam of old, creation will be subject to us!
That’s how powerful the cross of Jesus is!
It can translate even the likes of us – under the incredible power of this death-curse – into the heirs of Christ’s kingdom and into an everlasting reign over the new creation.
Does it sound good? It is SO meant to!
And you know why it is meant to? Because as it thrills our souls – like it will, if we really belong to Jesus – then we will be emboldened notto wander from this Jesus.
Last time, he so encouraged us not to wander from Jesus by paying more careful attention to Jesus.
And then he just showed us what an exercise in paying attention to Jesus might look like.
And what it can really do to our souls, when we behold him like this.
It makes us SO not want to drift from Jesus. But to stay the course with him, to the very end, so that we can enjoy his kingship with him – and so that we can enjoy ruling over the creation God will give us when we arrive there!
This morning, we surely stand amazed at what magnitude of deliverance and promise God’s grace has accomplished for our futures!
