Hebrews (2)

Hebrews 2:5–8 (KJV 1900)

Now Paul begins to get back to the situation at hand. Explaining how Christ is superior to the angels. For him to do that, he must show how not only are the angels below Christ, they are also below us.

For Paul to show just how superior Christ is, Paul needs to shoe the work that Christ had to do for man (this is to contrast what angels do for men Heb.1:14. In order to do that Paul must show the ruin state of man.

Man was given musch by God, but because of ,man’s sin he brought ruin upon himself which in turn required Christ to provide the cure.

The angels can do nothing but minister to man. Paul will show how Christ is superior because He can redeem man.

So the first thing we see is

The Authority of Man

“Unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come” (Hebrews 2:5).

This verse is talking about our eternal reign with Christ.

The angles will have no authority in the eternal.

For just as they are now, ministers, i.e servants, they will be in the millennium

Ps. 8:4-6.

What a thought that God the Creator of all and us , placed us over that creation and not His angles.

Remember the angles were created for worship.

In the future we will rule and reign with Christ. We will have autority over His creation.

Next we see:

The Perplexity about Man

What is man that thou art mindful of him? Hebrews 2:6a

How come men will rise to be over angels in the world to come?

Beholding the human race does not encourage one to think of man as eventually being raised above angels.

But

our text says

men will rule in the millennium—angels will not.

Christ has much to do with that fact.

Not only is there a Perplexity about Man,

Paul goes on in the same verse to show

The Generosity towards Man

The son of man that thou visitest him? Hebrews 2:6b

The generosity towards man was God visiting man simply for man’s redemption.

The word “visitest” helps us know whom this passage is speaking about.

Some think it is speaking about the Son of Man, namely, Jesus Christ.

But “That thou visitest him” says this passage is speaking about the “son of man,” namely, humans, for the word translated “visitest” means “to look upon in order to help or to benefit, to look after, to have a care for” (Wuest).

Wuest goes on to say, “This clearly indicates that the son of man spoken of here is the human race. God looks upon the human race in order to help or to benefit it. Thus the picture in verse 6–8 is that of the human race in Adam.”

The Generosity is the Gospel.

God will visit man in Christ to help man.

This refers specifically to the incarnation of Christ and His work on Calvary to provide us a Savior from our sins.

The Humility of Man

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels Hebrews 2:7a

We see the humiliation of man in the first part of this verse by Paul letting us know that we were made a little lower the the angles.

We are not superior to the angels as far as our natural state goes

one day we will be equal with them as far as eternity goes.

Man is lower than angels in the rank given him by God.

Thus, as we will see shortly, when Christ became incarnate, He humbled Himself and temporally became lower than the angels.

The fact that angels were at one time higher than Christ does not mean we should worship them, however.

John G. Butler, Analytical Bible Expositor: Hebrews, (Clinton, IA: LBC Publications, 2010), 17.

Next we see the exaltation of man by God crowning him with glory and honor

The Glory of Man

“Thou crownedst him with glory and honour” (Hebrews 2:7b).

Man is the crown of creation.

Man has been given glory and honor that animals have not been given.

Animals were created for man.

Man did not come from animals.

Evolution is nonsense. It does not believe Scripture.

The Dignity of Man

v.7c

In the creation, mankind was set over “the works of thy hands.”

That means that ....

man is more important than animals (as an example, “Ye are of more value than many sparrows”—Luke 12:7).

God gave more rank to man than to animals or to the environment.

This truth kills the philosophies and priorities of the animal rights’ groups and the environmentalists who in their practices leave out God and what God has to say about man in relation to the creation.

John G. Butler, Analytical Bible Expositor: Hebrews, (Clinton, IA: LBC Publications, 2010), 18.

The Capability of Man

“Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet” (Hebrews 2:8a).

When God created man, He gave him dominion over the creation so that it would be subject to man.

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion … over all the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

God is the only thing that is higher than man in creation.

This can be seen in the destruction that man can cause

Think about it

Atomic bomb

War

clearing of thousands of acres of forest

pollution

Im not a climate freak I am just saying, man is good at destroying that which has been placed under his feet.

The Culpability because of Man

“But now we see not yet all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:8b).

This is a sad verse and speaks of the tragic fall of man.

When Adam and Eve sinned, man lost his dominion over creation,

he was no longer master of the creation.

“The ground, instead of yielding only good things, now produced also thorns, weeds, and other harmful things.”

“Extremes of heat and cold, poisonous reptiles, earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, all conspired to make his life a constant battle to survive. He had lost the dominion over all these things” (Wuest).

This verse prepares us for what follows.

Ruined man needed a Savior to redeem him.

Christ, not an angel, became the Savior which shows the superiority of Christ over the angels.