Tag Archives: crowned with glory and honour

THE GOSPEL IN HEBREWS – 3

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Hebrews 2:5-8 NIV
[5] “It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. [6] But 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? [7] You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor [8] and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.”

Although angels have a role to play in God’s realm, God has not assigned to them the place that only humans have in His scheme of things.

God created the human species to replace the “sons of God”, the spirit beings that formed His divine council. These beings were called “gods” who were given power and authority to rule the nations under and for God. Instead of representing God, they rebelled and came under divine judgment.

God designated Jesus, in His humanity, qualified by His death and resurrection, to be the supreme Lord. The Father has assigned to Him all authority and power to be the head and blueprint of the Father’s human family. Jesus shares the role of son with His redeemed people…

Hebrews 2:9 NIV
[9] “But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

… so that humans, created in God’s image, will fulfill God’s creation mandate to rule.

Hebrews 2:5-8 NIV
[5] “It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. [6] But 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? [7] You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor [8] and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.”

So, the writer explains, it is to humans, not to angels, that God has assigned authority to rule. Jesus heads that race and prepares His human family in this life to rule with Him in eternity. In this sense, although humans are “lower” than gods (angels) now, they will take their place beside the Son to rule the earth.

Jesus Himself affirms this relationship of sons and daughters of God, His own brothers and sisters who identify with Him in His death and resurrection.

Hebrews 2:10-13 NLT
[10] “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. [11] So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. [12] For he said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” [13] He also said, “I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.”

Immediately after His resurrection, he instructed Mary to tell His brothers that He had risen from the dead and was soon to return to the Father.

John 20:17 NLT
[17] “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

The Father has assigned to Jesus and His brothers and sisters, in this close family relationship, the authority to rule over the nations.

Consider Daniel’s prophecy…

Daniel 7:13-14, 27 NLT
[13] As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. [14] He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed…”

Rulers will rise and fall until, in God’s time,

[27]”…Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will last forever, and all rulers will serve and obey him.”

In this way, God will fulfill His mandate for the human race. Confirmed in righteousness and under the authority of their Head, Jesus, the divine-human Son of God, redeemed humans will rule over the nations in God’s kingdom forever.

When we understand the destiny of God’s people in this context, we will read the story of Israel in the Old Covenant with greater appreciation. Despite the sinfulness and failure of God’s people to carry out His instructions, He persevered with His plan. He was preparing a holy people for their eternal role as rulers of the nations.

The story of the New Covenant, then, is part two in the execution of His plan. Without part one, part two makes no sense. It’s this writer to the Hebrews who puts together the pieces of the puzzle to reveal God’s perspective of the bigger picture.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and prepared and populated it with creatures and humans. He spent centuries undoing the damage the fallen angel, Lucifer, did by luring humans away from loving and trusting their Creator. God gave His own Son to redeem humans from their self-destruction and to restore His image in them.

Never did the Father abandon His original plan. Through His wisdom, grace and mercy, He fulfilled His purpose, rescued His chosen family, and set them on course to complete what He started.

Through salvation and transformation, He is gathering His family in until the time is ripe for Jesus to return to set up His kingdom on earth. God’s plan will be complete.

Revelation 21:1-4 NIV
[1] Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. [2] I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. [4] ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelation 22:3-5 NIV
[3] “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. [4] They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. [5] There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

Mission accomplished!

To be continued…

BUT WE SEE JESUS

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BUT WE SEE JESUS

But we do see Jesus, who was made a little 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 of death for everyone. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what He suffered. (Heb. 2: 9, 10).

God’s purpose for mankind is a lofty one – to rule over His creation as His vice regent. But we have a creation in rebellion, triggered by man’s rebellion in the beginning.

The writer to the Hebrews caught the vision of David’s song of praise to God, recorded in Psalm 8. As great and immeasurable as the universe is, God created mankind to have greater glory than the majestic grandeur of the universe. He made man in His own image and gave Him a role that not even angels have been given – to manage the earth for Him as kings and priests.

However, it has not yet come to pass as God intended. Man has squandered God’s resources and mismanaged His creation. He has interfered with the interconnectedness of the created order and brought destruction instead of maintaining order and harmony. God’s intention still stands but it would take a cataclysmic event to set everything right and get it back on track again.

This is where Jesus comes in. God’s sons and daughters failed to fulfil His mandate, choosing their own rules and messing everything up. God needed one obedient Son to put it all right, so He sent His own Son, made an exact replica of the original man, to do what the first man was supposed to do. Obedience to the Father was the key.

Just as Adam was the representative of the human race, but failed and brought disaster on us all, so Jesus was the representative of the human race to undo what Adam did. He lived the life of a perfect son, and then took the rap for all our failure. God accepted His death as a substitute for us and reckoned us to be perfect sons and daughters just as Jesus was a perfect son.

Angels can never be what God created man to be, and angels can never do what Jesus did to put right what went wrong. Jesus, as representative man, the last Adam (and there will never be another beginning to the human race because Jesus achieved what He set out to do), leads the charge to fulfil God’s plan for the whole of creation.

God never gave up on His plan to have a family of perfect sons and daughters, free of sin and living in union with Him, with all mankind and with all of creation. Through suffering as a human being, subject to the weaknesses of humanity, and suffering for the sin of the world as our perfect substitute, Jesus pulled off God’s rescue plan. Sin and its penalty gone, He is free to bring ‘many sons to glory’. What does that mean?

Does it mean that He will take us to heaven when we die? That and much more! Glory implies the radiance of who God is – His character and attributes. As heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, we have an inheritance that is our right as His sons and daughters. What is our inheritance? The Bible only hints at the nature of our inheritance in Christ, using all-inclusive words like the following:

1. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32) – God has given the kingdom to His true sons, but not to those who lives, not their words, deny their allegiance to Jesus.

2. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matt. 5: 5). Those whose strength is harnessed for service will have a part in managing the earth for God.

3.  He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8: 32).

4. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1: 4).

These are all-inclusive promises summed up in Paul’s words:

‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived ‘- the things God has prepared for those who love Him. (1 Cor. 2: 9).

The summit of our inheritance as God’s children is that we will once again be bearers of God’s image and His divine nature as he intended. Jesus will lead us into our inheritance as God’s perfect children just as He is.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.