Heb 2:1-9 - Reasons for essential humanity of Christ; Recovery of Man's forfeited dominion

I'd like you to turn with me this morning, please, to the letter to the Hebrews in chapter two. Looking at the schedule, it seems that the brethren have kindly allocated me four sessions of teaching over this weekend. And from this chapter, I would like to go through with you four particular reasons in this chapter for the essential humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

By the word essential, I don't mean necessary, although that's true. But when we think of the essence of something, we think of its very core. We think of what it truly is.

And when we speak of the essential humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, we're therefore thinking of who he is, his manhood. And this chapter more than any other, perhaps in the New Testament, speaks to us and teaches us of the essential humanity of our Lord Jesus. The language used by the Spirit of God is therefore very, very careful.

And that's what we want to examine in these sessions that will be my responsibility, God willing, over the conference weekend. The first of those reasons given for the essential humanity of Christ is in verses five to nine of the chapter. But before we read that, I'm a great believer in trying to set things in their context.

And in order to understand the context of these verses on this section, we really need to go back into chapter one. A statement was made in chapter one, verses one to four, that leaves us in no doubt of the deity of our Lord Jesus, his unrelinquished godhood. What the writer is going to show by the time he has finished chapter two is that though the Lord Jesus took upon himself absolutely genuine humanity with all of humanity's limitations, of course, sin is not one of those things.

Sin is an intruder. So we understand and we know and we, I'm sure, all here today completely agree that the Lord Jesus not only did not sin, he could not sin, he's incapable of it. But as far as his manhood is concerned, it was very genuine.

And the writer's going to show that in taking on humanity, the Lord Jesus relinquished nothing of his essential deity. This is, of course, the great mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in flesh. But having made the statement in chapter one, verses one to four, that the Lord Jesus is co-equal in every respect with the Father, he is God.

Having made that statement, then in the remainder of chapter one, he calls upon seven Old Testament references to support the statement that he's made in verses one to four. So although the language is very high in chapter one, the breakdown of the chapter is not difficult. Verses one to four, a statement concerning the deity of Christ, the rest of the chapter, seven references to Old Testament scripture to verify the statement that's been made.

When we look at the end of chapter one, the seventh quotation from the Old Testament, if you care to look at the end of the chapter, is in verses 13 and 14. That statement from Psalm 110 concludes the chapter, but then it should be noted that verses one to four of chapter two are a parenthesis, they are a bracketed section, they are the first of the five warning passages so-called that we have in the Hebrew epistle. And whilst that warning passage is in itself important, because it is a parenthesis, it means we can lift it out of the section momentarily, we can lift it out of the narrative, and we can read intelligently from verses 13 and 14 of chapter one straight into verse five of chapter two.

You'll see if you look at verse five of chapter two, it begins with the word for. Evidently, this verse is based on something that's gone beforehand. And particularly, what has gone beforehand is the statement in verse 13 of chapter one.

I hope we're following this. So let's just do it, let's read from verse 13. Verse 14, we can leave out for the moment as well for the sense of the passage.

We'll read from verse 13 of Hebrews chapter one, and from verse 13, we'll read straight into verse five of chapter two. Verse 13 says, but to which of the angels said God at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. For unto the angels hath God not put in subjection the world, the age to come of which we speak.

You see the connection? There was never a time when God said to an angel, sit thou at my right hand until your enemies are subdued. Because the reason why God has never said that to any angel is because he's not put in subjection to angels the age that is to come. That we will explain in a moment, God willing.

So having made that connection, that context in the chapter, let's read please verses five to nine of Hebrews chapter two. For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak, but one in a certain place testified saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownest him with glory and honor and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.

For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet 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 should taste death for every man.

And we trust that God will bless to us the reading and study of his word today. It is actually a very remarkable statement with which this section commences. We've seen the connection with chapter one.

God has never declared unto any angelic being that that angel will sit at his right hand. But particularly to the Hebrew mind, and of course that's the people to whom this letter was addressed, it's a very remarkable thing that what God never attributed to an angel, he's given to a man, that a man should sit at his right hand. And now the writer is going to go into the reason why that should be the case.

For unto the angels, God has not put in subjection the age to come whereof we speak. Now that age to come, the word world, if you're reading in the King James Version as I am, that word world is the thought of an age, a period of time, and the age to come of which the writer has been speaking from chapter one is made very evident. It is the millennial age.

It is the kingdom age of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the kingdom age, what we call the millennium, that 1,000 year physical, literal reign of the Lord Jesus, which is going to happen in this world after we, the church, have been taken home to heaven, after the seven year tribulation period has run its course, that seven year tribulation period will terminate with a return to the earth of the Lord Jesus, that event we call the second advent. He will come in power and great glory, and he will come to establish and inaugurate that 1,000 year reign.

That is the age to come of which the writer is speaking. But it's interesting that he says that age, God has not put that age in subjection to angels. The inference obviously being that the age before it, the age in which you and I are living, is subject to angels.

It's not something we perhaps think about readily, but that's why he then goes into the narrative of Psalm number eight, and why he's speaking about God's purpose for man. And in verses six to eight, where he's quoting from Psalm number eight, he's talking about Adam. And he's talking about the fact that when God made Adam, and of course, he made Eve as well from him, when God made our first parents, it was with the purpose that they should exercise rule and dominion over the works of God's hands.

Adam was to be a regent. Adam was to rule on earth with delegated authority from heaven. And in that great task for which God made him and fitted him he would have a help, he would have a consort in the person of his wife, Eve, and the two of them together, neither one independent of the other, the two of them together would exercise that dominion.

When you read in Genesis chapter one, read carefully as always every chapter, but read carefully and you will see that when God spoke of his purpose in making man, he said, let us make man in our image and after our own likeness and let them have dominion. The them, the plural is referring to both Adam and Eve. You see nothing and no one, no book sets the standard for the equality of male and female better or more firmly than the word of God.

And in these days of great moral upheaval, we need to be absolutely certain as Christians that as far as God is concerned, there are just two genders. They are male and female. That's how God made man at the beginning.

That's what God intended. And as male and female, completely equal in status, they would exercise dominion over the works of God's hands. And so there's a wonderful equality there in Genesis one in the exercise of the work God had for our parents.

But then you come to chapter two and you find some of that narrative repeated, but in a little more detail. And in chapter two, you find that God having made man, having made Adam out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so that man became a living soul, then God stands Adam before him. And he said, now of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou mayest not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Where was Eve? She wasn't made.

It was only after that that God made Eve. So now we might think, had it been left to us to write the program, probably we would have said, well, let's make the man, let's bring the woman out from his side, then let's stand the two of them together and give them that first law. But our ways are not God's ways.

And so when only the man, the male, was the only living person on the face of the planet, that's when God instituted the principle of law, that's when he gave that instruction. And God is thus teaching us that though in chapter one of Genesis, the genders are completely equal in his sight. At the same time, in chapter two, God is teaching us that of the two genders, it is the male who stands responsible to God for the actions of both male and female.

That's important for us to see. What he's doing, in fact, is establishing what we know as the principle of headship, that principle which we're observing today and which is so important and at the very core of divine order. Complete equality, nothing demeaning, nothing secondary about the woman as far as God is concerned.

When it comes to the work, they're united. When it comes to responsibility, the man stands alone before God. That's why in companies like this, the men are teaching.

There is no implication in Scripture ever that the dear women amongst us are incapable of teaching. It's not as though somehow they don't have the same insight. In fact, most of the things I've learned best from Scripture I've probably learned in the home from sisters.

So there's no thought at all that women are unable to teach. The point is that they don't because it's not in keeping with divine order. And that order is something God established way back there in Genesis.

So it's nothing to do with equality. It's everything to do with the observation of the order of things. And that's why in Genesis two, God spoke to the man before ever the woman was made.

So then when in chapter three, that tragic account of how sin came into the world and death along with sin, it's in Genesis chapter three that we find that the devil in the form of the serpent approached the woman. Everything he does is contrary to divine order. Now, the devil's attack was met with sadly complacency on the part of Adam.

Adam had been warned of God that there would be some reason to punish him to guard the garden. The Lord God put Adam in the garden to tend and to keep it, the scripture says. The tending we can understand perhaps, but to keep it, the word literally means to guard as with a military guard.

God put Adam in the garden to guard it because it would come under attack. It would be under assault. And the reason it would be under assault was because the sin principle had already come into existence in the heart of the angel, Lucifer.

You'll read about that in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah chapter 14. Sin was already existent in the heavens. It was by one man, says Romans five, that sin came into the world.

It didn't originate with Adam. It originated outside of the world and it came into the world through Adam. By one man, sin came into the world and death by sin.

And as a consequence, all have sinned. All have sinned in Adam. Sin having come into the world, Eve having played, says Paul to Timothy, a part in the transgression.

Eve is not held accountable for what happened because of what we've explained already about headship from chapters one and two. Adam, the man, he was held responsible for what happened. He was the one who held that federal headship over the race of mankind.

It was Adam's sin that made you a sinner. It was Adam's sin that made you and me subject to death. The effects of what Adam did in Genesis three are vast.

Now what happened, of course, when Adam and his wife capitulated to the overtures of the serpent and those overtures were very simple. Effectively, Satan said, now look, why do you submit yourself to this restriction that God has put on you? After all, Eve, you, your husband, Adam, you're smart people. You're able to discern yourself what's right and wrong.

You don't need him to tell you what's right and wrong. We learn a lot about how the devil works because of course he didn't for one second draw Eve's attention to the fact that of every tree of the garden, they could freely eat. He doesn't point to the goodness of God.

He pointed to the restriction. So that as Eve looked at that tree, which evidently she was afraid of, there was something fearful about it. It was a symbol of prohibition.

She knew that. Adam had obviously explained it to her. But as soon as she moved aside from the revealed word of God, Satan provoked her to tell him what she knew about it and as you know, I'm sure, in that narrative in Genesis 3, she both added and subtracted from what God had said.

For her, the commandment of God was only hearsay. She'd only heard it repeated from Adam's lips. And so she added to the word of God.

She said, well, we're not to eat of it, neither are we to touch it. And all the while, she is failing to refer to her husband the whole matter of this creature enticing her away from the word of God. So she failed in it.

She had a part to play in the transgression. Adam's was worse. You might have, I don't know, heard the idea, read the commentary that says, well, Adam was off doing other things.

He'd left his wife alone and that's when the serpent came. But no, that's not what the Bible says. You can look at verse six of chapter three.

And she took of the fruit and gave to her husband with her. He was there. But he was complacent and he wasn't guarding the garden.

He dropped his guard. And now the enticement of the devil was very simple. Why do you accept God's restriction? Exercise your own free will, act in independence and you yourselves will be as God's determining what is good and evil.

You can be the ones that do that. You're clever enough to do that. So that was the enticement.

But see this, dear saints, this is important because what happened to our first parents shows us how we work. Because as soon as Eve stood apart from the revealed word of God, she wasn't quoting it exactly. She didn't know it exactly.

And as soon as she stepped aside from the revealed word of God, a moral change came over her. She has lost the spiritual fight. Now she's going to lose the moral battle.

And that's going to affect what she does physically. So you are spirit, soul, and body. That's the way God made us.

And the body behaves in a physical way. It performs the actions. The actions are controlled largely, if not completely, by the morality of the soul.

In other words, the way we think about things. What are our values? So we behave in a way that is controlled by our thought processes, by the values that we hold and have been instilled into us. But those moral values need a basis.

And for the Christian, the basis is the word of God. So if the word of God is understood and obeyed, it will affect my morality. It will affect my thinking.

It will affect the value I put on things. And that in turn will control my behavior. Eve stood aside from the revealed word of God.

That immediately changed her thinking. The tree which she said, neither may we touch it, because it was a token of prohibition. The scripture says, when she saw that it was a tree that was attractive, it was desired to make one wise.

That which was prohibited suddenly became attractive. Well, the tree hadn't changed. She had changed.

And why she had changed was because she'd stepped aside from the word of God. The morality changed along with that step. And as a consequence, she performed an action that minutes before she would never have contemplated doing.

We as believers need to remember that, for that's exactly how we work. Those of us a bit older, more mature, will look back on events in our lives when we would have to change our behavior and we would have to admit that we'd let spiritual things grow cold. We perhaps had neglected our daily reading.

We'd neglected prayer. We'd allowed other things to come in. When those other things come in and we fade spiritually, our morality will change.

It will. You know it. You older ones especially know it.

We're saying, we're spelling these things out in detail because we particularly want our younger folk to understand these things. And if you neglect the spiritual things, other things will come in. Your morality will change.

That movie that you would once have definitely not watched just because of the warning on the label, you'll now watch it. And you'll excuse the bad language and you'll excuse the bedroom scenes because it's not much of the movie, but the next movie will have more of that in it and more of that in it and you're on a very, very slippery slope because now your whole moral being is being infected and affected by ungodly things and your behavior will change. It will.

This is inescapable truth concerning the way the human being works and we've got the whole record of it in chapter two of Genesis, how sin came into the world. And because of that breakdown in spiritual, moral, and physical behavior, sin came into the world and Adam, because of the position that he occupied as the head of the human race, he effectively surrendered to the devil the power, the glory, the dominion that God had given to him, Adam. So when God delegates something, he does it far better, of course, than any human being does.

You'll have a boss possibly who, in theory, delegates responsibility to you to do a job and then bugs the life out of you because he keeps poking his nose in and say, well, don't do it like this, do it like that. And you think, well, if you've given me the job, let me get on with it. Let it stand or fall with me.

Well, when God delegated authority to Adam, he did so in total. He said, now the dominion over the works of my hands, that's yours, Adam, there it goes. So when Adam had this failure, when he surrendered to the will of the devil rather than obeying the word of God, what he effectively did was surrender to the devil everything that God had given to him.

There were days when nations were at battle with each other. They would set their armies in a ray. The big fight would start.

And if at the end of the fight, there was a clear winner, and if perhaps the king over the vanquished nation was still alive, he would be brought with procession to the pavilion of the victorious king. And he would come in and he would be humiliated and he would be forced to kneel. He would surrender his sword.

He's one man. But because of who he is, because of the office he holds, when that one man surrenders, he's surrendering all his territory, he's surrendering all his people, he's surrendering all his wealth, all those that he is over, he is surrendering as well. That's what Adam did.

And he surrendered it all to the devil. And hence the devil has become the God of this world. This world in which we are living is subject to an angel.

It's under his control. Now, we know that there's a throne in the heavens and nothing can assail that throne. God, of course, is in supreme control, yes.

But the thing is, God acknowledges the transaction that Adam made. God acknowledges that when Adam handed over that dominion, that it was effectively a legal construct. It was something that he did.

He had the authority to do it, and sadly he did it. And so if that dominion is to be brought back out of the hands of that angelic being, supremely wicked as he is, it's going to be done rightly. It's going to be done righteously.

It's going to be done legally. It's going to be done so that none could ever accuse God of not acting in a righteous way. And thus opens the whole great drama of redemption, the whole great purpose of God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that the whole matter of what Adam did and what Adam forfeited could not just be corrected, but that it could all be corrected righteously and legally.

And that's what we're coming into in this world. In this lovely section of Hebrews chapter two. So that concludes this opening message.

But hopefully it gives us some insight into verse five of Hebrews chapter two. That unto the angels, God has not put in subjection the age that is to come. This age is in subjection to angels.

The devil and the fallen angels with him, the demons, opposed to them. We get a glimpse of this conflict in Jude's epistle. We get a glimpse of it in Ephesians chapter six.

Other scriptures give us a glimpse behind the scenes of this cosmic struggle that is going on in the angelic realm. But in the age to come, it won't be angels to whom the world is subject. It will be another man.

It will be the man. It will be our Lord Jesus Christ. And more of that, God willing, we will see later.

May God bless his word.