God's Plan for Humankind

Introduction

It is important for us to know what it means to be human, and who we are created to be. Salvation is God’s work to restore and perfect the humanity he created us to have.

The Subjection of a Future World

First we are told that the world to come is not subjected to angels.

World to come refers not to a planet to come, but specifically means the inhabited world or society of the future. As we will see when we approach the end of this text and later on in this book, the author of Hebrew believes in the typical two age view of the world and the intermediate reality of the church age.

What does it mean that God did not subject that future world to angels?

Deuteronomy 32:8 ESV

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

In the Greek Septuigint translation, it reads:

Deuteronomy 32:8 Brenton LXX En

When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.

God created human beings to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth as part of bearing his image. Human beings were authority over the world to submit it to the will of God.

After the fall, human beings were unable to rule as God desired them to because they were rebellious and separated from his presence. After the Tower of Babel, God separated the nations under the authority of angelic beings, whom the OT seems to identify with pagan dieties. These angels, or most of them, also fell or were already corrupt by accepting from these nations the worship that is due to YHWH alone. Babel was a sort of exile of the nations from their place as a united race under God with the task of ruling over creation because of their rebellion which, at this point, was not only on the individual level at the fall, not just on the federal level through Adam, not just on the cultural level found at the flood, but on a systematic level that permeated all of human society. So the nations are divided as a kind of spiritual exile, their rule is taken away and given to tyrannical gods. So, much of the OT is not only a struggle against nations like Egypt and the Canaanites as people groups, but a struggle against their deities as real spiritual beings who have rebelled against God’s authority is a similar way that Adam and Eve did.

What God is looking to build is a new world order for the created world in which angels are no longer in charge, but once against human beings are.

As chapter 1 clearly showed us, God created angelic beings to serve those who are to inheret salvation. 1 Corinthians 6:3 tells us that believers will judge angels in the new world, which is in perfect harmony with this passage. The authority given to angels was always meant to be temporary as God led one nation to himself, and through them led the other nations to worship him.

What is Man?

The author of Hebrews now quotes Psalm 8, which we read together. He quotes the Greek Septuigint translation which was commonly used in the first century, especially among those from a Jewish background that lived outside of Judea and may not have known Hebrew or Aramaic.

In this Psalm, David contemplates God’s greatness in all the earth. He contrasts how God sets his glory above the heavens in ultimate transcendance and yet establishes strength and overcomes his enemies by the words of infants. God’s greatness is shown in the weak vessels he is able to use for his own glory.

David then looks into the heavens, the moon and the stars which he attributes to God as the work of his fingers. The nations around often thought of these heavenly bodies as divine beings or related to divine beings. Here, they are portrayed as created beings whatever their relationship with divine beings is. The angels and the moon and starts are created by God.

In light of God’s great work among the created heavenly beings, both physical and spiritual in nature, David considers the position of mankind in the grand scheme of things. Since the stars and angels are made simply by God’s fingers, why does God consider humans? They are of the dust, in the world below heaven, why should God keep us in mind and take care of us? What difference would it make in the universe? We come and we go, walking along the earth far below the great bodies of the heavens and the world of angels and heaven.

And yet, the Psalmist declares, God did make man with a great amount of dignity. We are talk that God made human beings “a little lower than the heavenly beings”. Again, ancient peoples usually thought of stars and the moon as divine beings themselves, so when he talks about the heavenly beings he is likely speaking of both the stars and angelic beings. This is why, while the Hebrew says heavenly beings, the Greek Septuigint which the author of Hebrews quotes says angels.

Now, you may notice if you compare the two passages that there is another difference. While Psalm 8:5 in your bibles probably says that God made humans a little lower than the heavenly beings, Hebrews says for a little while lower than the angels. The reason for this difference is that, in Hebrew, the word little is not specified and so could mean either a little lower or lower for a little. The Septuigint translator went with a little while whereas most modern translators lean the other way.

The author of Hebrews prefers this translation, and not because the other is necessarily wrong, as again the Hebrew words are broad and can be taken either way. However, the author of Hebrews is building this passage into a biblical theology of God’s purpose for human beings. So while David was wondering about why God considers humans, the author of Hebrews is building on this idea by emphasizing the temporary nature of man’s lowliness.

The Psalm is not speaking about Christ specifically, and neither is the author of Hebrews...yet. Instead, he is going back to what human were created for; and what God’s purpose is for humanity in the future.

Again, lets return to what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. It means to represent God in the world, to rule over the creatures he has made in this world, and to act in this position as children of God. By the time we get to the Tower of Babel, humanity has become so corrupt that they are spread in a sort of exile and God divides these nations among angelic beings. Now here, the author of Hebrews is telling us that, as David reflected on our lowliness compared to the heavenly beings, he focuses on this lowliness being temporary. Why? Because in the world to come angels are not in charge, human beings are.

The Subjection Not Yet Completed

Now, in verse 8 we are brought back to our current reality. Despite our unimpressive stature, God has crowed us with glory and honour to ultimately reflect God’s glory and strength in this world. Just like how he establishes strength from the lips of infants, he establishes his reign on earth through human beings. The consequence is that God left nothing outside the control of human beings. Here, it is clear that God’s will is a total subjugation of the created world under the control and stewardship of human beings who are in covenant relationship with Him.

However, this is currently not the case. We do not yet see everything in subjection. For one thing, our sin has separated us from the tree of life, meaning that death along with the fruitlessness of human work in Adam’s curse, still haunts us as a result of sin. On top of this, most of us are not in covenant relationship with God, and those of us who are often fail in that role. Every time we make a new technology to solve a problem, two more problems arise. We rape the natural world and kill one another. Otherwise, we worship the creation rather than the creator and make environmentalism an end cause in itself rather than pursuing biblical and careful stewardship for God’s glory. Besides this, it is clear that the world remains in many places a wild place where human management is unknown or misapplied. While we are tasked with making the world a Garden of Eden, our efforts remain mostly unfruitful.

So, despite God’s purpose for humanity, we have yet to see God’s purpose for humanity realized. We are reminded of the time in which we live, and how it is an inbetween phase. Christ has taken up all authority as the New Adam, and that is what we will cover next week. Yet, we have yet to see the world to come in its full subjection, and so we live now between ages.

“Hebrews thus affirms that we live in the overlap of the two ages, the present age and the age to come” - Peter T. O’Brien

Conclusion: Our Need for a Perfect Man

So what we are left with is a need: we need a reversal of the curse, an atonement for sin, the defeat of death, the power to subdue both natural and angelic elements underfoot, and the one who is to do this must be a human being since it is to humans that God has subjected the world to come. Things are coming full circle; the entire purpose of our existence is coming to fruition, but we have yet to see it reach that fullness. And yet, this text gives us a very basic insight into what our purpose is in the created world and how our So, how are we to think of ourselves?

Despite our humble stature, we were created for glory. Though we are lower than the angels in our appearance, we were made to one day rule over them.

It is the duty of all mankind to remain faithful in covenant with God and reflect his rule in the world in which he has placed us. This is a duty we have all failed at, and we need the God-man Jesus Christ to win back that victory for us. Our union with Christ in his blood by faith makes Christians part of a royalty which God always designed for human beings to have. Embracing Christ is to most fully and perfectly embrace our humanity.

And yet, we live in this awkward place between the days before Christ, when the nations were ruled by the spiritual forces of fallen angels, but have yet to see the victory over the created world fully realized. Instead, we look to Christ, the true king, both human and divine, who rules over the universe and is subjecting the world and preparing us for the world to come.

The is ultimatley the hope of the Christian. So while in this life, we should take good care of the creation that is entrusted to us, we are looking to a new world in which we will be caretakers along with Christ who defeated everything that has kept us from what we were created to do. We will reign with him, the Scriptures say, and we will perfectly reflect the image of God. That is our identity, our hope, and our future. That is what we turn ourselves towards. The forgiveness of sins is just the first step of a salvation that ends when we are finally what we are supposed to be.