Created for Dominion (Hebrews 2:5-8)

The World to Come and the Destiny of Man

Please turn to Hebrews chapter 2, and we're going to read together verses 5 through 9. Actually, we'll do 5 through verse 10 of Hebrews chapter 2. For He did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking.

But one has testified somewhere saying, What is man that you remember him or the son of man that you are concerned about him? You've made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him over the works of your hands.

You've put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Let's pray together. Father, it is our earnest desire that we would hear the voice of our God in the pages of Scripture and that our hearts and our minds and our eyes would be open to that.

And we pray that in our study and our meditation here today, that your spirit would be our guide and our teacher and grant us the instruction that we need from your word. Help us to think clearly and discerningly about all things that we are considering this morning.

And may you be glorified through the preaching of your word, for we believe that when your word is rightly preached, your voice is truly heard. And may you be glorified in that today we ask in Christ's name.

Amen.

Competing Worldviews of Human Identity

On all of the major questions of any kind of theological or moral significance, the answer that is presented by the world is always going to be the polar opposite of what Scripture says. If you ever find yourself in agreement with the spirit of the age or the culture or the political machinery or the secular world around you on any great moral or theological issue, you can take that as an almost certain sign that you are in agreement with the pit of hell itself.

If at any time you agree with the culture, you should stop and check and examine the status of your own soul because you are almost certainly wrong about whatever theological or moral issue it is. And one such question is this question.

It's a fundamental one. What is man? What is man? It's amazing how infrequently, seldom, if ever, most people even give any consideration to that question or the answer to it. What is man? What is the destiny of man?

Who am I?

Why am I here? And where am I going? Not only what am I, but what am I destined for? What has God created us for? And am I here for any particular purpose or reason? And most people just sort of fly through life without giving any thought to that question.

What is man? And where is man going? And why has God created man? And that is the question that is addressed in our subject here, in our text here this morning in Hebrews chapter 2. Now, the world gives all kinds of different answers to that.

The animistic, idolater, pagan worshiper, they view man as being less than the rest of creation. And so they take things like rocks and sticks and precious metals and they fabricate idols out of them and they bow down and they view themselves as there to serve the material elements that are around them.

That is the worldview of an idolater. A pantheist or a panentheist, a pantheist is one who believes that everything is God. A panentheist is one who believes that God is in everything. Now, those two worldviews are very similar to each other in this that they both view all of creation as inextricably linked to God.

And so the pantheist and the panentheist would say that God is in everything, God is everything. And so there is no moral difference between men, there's no significant difference between men or the mice, the mouse or the tree or the bird or the chair upon which you sit.

There's no significant difference between you and the cow that you're going to eat for lunch. That the cow is just as divine as the rock or the tree or the bird or you. You're all part of the same substance that matter is God or that matter or that God is in all of matter.

That would be the pantheist or the panentheist. Now, the evolutionist and the atheist, their answer to that is entirely different. So the idolater views himself as less than creation, here to serve the creation, the material order.

The pantheist and the panentheist believe themselves as equal to a part of this creation with no significant distinction between us as men and the rest of creation. The evolutionist and the atheist says man is nothing.

You're just nothing. You are nothing. You mean nothing. You're going to nothing. When you die, you will be nothing. There was nothing. You were nothing before you got here.

You're nothing while you're here.

And you will be nothing once you leave here. You're just nothing. Now, they would never say it like that. Honestly, though, that's the way their worldview dictates that they believe. They would never say that.

They would say we believe that man can have a meaningful existence and a purposeful existence, that man is a noble evolutionary creature, and that he can be virtuous and good and kind. That's what an atheist would say.

But in an atheistic or secular evolutionary worldview, such notions of nobility and goodness and kindness and virtue and purpose and meaning, those don't have any meaning. Because if there is no God, then we're all just matter.

You're just meat from head to toe. And there really is no moral difference between you eating a cow for lunch and a cow eating you for lunch. There's no significant difference between those two things.

Because you are just one form of reorganized pond scum. And the cow is just a different form of reorganized pond scum. But at the end of the day, you're just both reorganized pond scum. And so if you take the cow and you eat him for lunch, you're doing your part in the evolutionary scheme to reorganize that organized pond scum into a different form of organized pond scum.

And if the cow were to eat you, he's doing nothing more than doing his part in reorganizing you into a different organization of pond scum. So at the end of the day, we're all just matter. We're all just meat.

And there's no moral significance. There's no difference between us and the rest of creation because you are really nothing. The atheist doesn't want to say it that way, but that is the end result of his worldview.

If there is no God, then you are just meat from head to toe. So from the evolutionary perspective or from the evolutionist perspective, if I gas a termite, that is no different than aborting a baby. There's no moral significance.

There's no moral difference between those two actions. And if we can morally gas termites, why can't we morally gas Jews? You see, a genocide is just a large-scale reorganization of organized pond scum, one particular type of organized pond scum or one color of organized pond scum.

So that's the evolutionist perspective. What is God's perspective on this question? Am I allowed to? Can we gas termites? Can we kill babies? Can we gas citizens and people and destroy nations and murder people wholesale?

If I'm an evolutionist, an atheist, why not? There's no moral reason why that I cannot do that. But if I am a creationist, if I believe in what Scripture says, I have to say that man is created in the image of God.

That gives him infinite dignity and value and worth, not because we are the highest of an evolutionary chain, but because we are the highest of God's created order in this cosmos. And so I have significance.

I have moral value. I have moral weight.

There is a moral difference between the cow eating me for lunch and me eating the cow for lunch. Is it just me or am I the only one hungry in this room? There is a moral difference between those two things because there is a God.

So back to our question, what is man? Biblically, we are the highest of God's created order. Biblically, we have been created to rule and reign in this universe. That is God's purpose in creating man.

Christ, Angels, and the World to Come

And that is what is described in Hebrews chapter 2. And we're going to be working our way through today, verses 5 through 8. And I would just give you a little bit of background and reminder of where we're at in Hebrews 2 as we get to verse 5.

The author is, again, comparing the two. Jesus with the angels. And the rest of chapter 2 is intended to answer these two questions. If Jesus was really truly human, doesn't that make him less than the angels?

And the author's answer to that is no, it does not, because he was made for a little while lower than the angels. The implication being that he will be and man is created to be greater than the angels.

And the second question that he answers is, if Jesus was crucified and he suffered and died, doesn't his death prove that he was less than the angels? And the answer to that question is no, neither his incarnation, his humanity, nor his death demonstrate that he is less than the angels.

There is a purpose both in the incarnation and in the death of Jesus, which purpose demonstrates that he is not less than the angels. He is, in fact, still greater than the angels. So we come to verse 5.

And I'll give you an outline for what we're going to be looking at this week today and next week, Lord willing. In verse 5 through verse 9, we see three things. First, that God created man and... Let me try it again.

God created man so that man may exercise a great dominion. All right, that's 5, verse 5 through 8. Then at the end of chapter, verse 8, man rebelled and has suffered a downfall. And so we have forfeited that dominion.

And then verse 9, Jesus has come and he has brought deliverance for the people of God so that he might restore us to that dominion. Now that's that, in that small passage is the grand scope of human history.

God has created man so that he might exercise a great dominion. Man has suffered a downfall and he has forfeited and lost that dominion. And Christ has come to redeem man, pull him out of that and to restore him again to that exercise of dominion.

Creation and man's dominion, his fall and redemption. And that is the grand scope of human history. So today we're going to be looking at God creating man to exercise this great dominion. So let's pick it up in verse 5.

Now we got a little bit of the context last week with looking through Psalm 8, which is quoted in verses 6 through 8. And today we're going to be starting at verse 5 and kind of catching that quotation again.

Verse 5, for he did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking. But one is testified somewhere saying, what is man that you remember him or the son of man that you are concerned about him?

We're going to get to the dominion that is exercised beginning of verse 6. But I want you to notice that the word subject is there in verse 5. And that word subject, it's used five times in these five verses.

Four times it is the translation of a Hebrew word, hupotasso. And that word means to be in submission to or to be under something. And the fifth time that it is used, it is in a negated form. It's actually a different Greek word, which means to be in rebellion or independent or uncontrolled or not under the control of something.

So four out of the five times that you read the word subject in verses 5 through 9, it is translating that Greek word hupotasso, which was a term that was used in a military context of lining up soldiers under a commanding officer to give some order to them and to line them up under an authority figure, right?

To put them under someone else. Eventually, it came to be used of any kind of an administration or a running of things, any kind of an exercising of authority where you would administer or rule over a group of individuals.

And then, of course, it was also used, came later to be used in that military context of just having oversight or administration authority over a group of people who are underneath you. So that word subject simply means to be lined up under or to be placed under someone else.

And so we could translate verse 5, he has not or he will not in the world to come make angels the rulers or the administrators of that world that is to come. He will not subject the world that is to come to angels.

Now, the word of the day for the kids is subject. Don't get that confused with subject. Our subject today is subject. So if you hear me say subject at some point, and you don't think that I mean subject, that's not.

We're talking about the subject of subject. So keep those straight. If you're counting those, not all of the subjects are subjects. You got that? Some subjects are not subject, which he mentions actually verses 8 and 9.

All right.

What has he subjected to mankind? He has subjected the world that is to come. And what is that world that is to come? There is a world and the word that is translated world there or the world to come is the word oikomenin.

Oikos is the word for house or household. It described an inhabited place. So if you're driving by a street and you saw a house that was vacant, you wouldn't use this word to describe that because it's not an inhabited place.

And so when he's talking about the world, he doesn't use the term cosmos, which might mean the world or created order. He doesn't use the word that might be translated age or era or something like that.

He doesn't even use the word for heaven. He's speaking here of an inhabited world that is to come. Now, this is not the same inhabited world that we live in. How do we know that? Because he said is the world to come.

There is an inhabited world that is yet to come. And that inhabited world that is yet to come is going to be made subject to angels, not to angels, but to men. That is his point. He is not going to subject the world that is to come to angels.

This is something that is reserved for men. We are going to be given in the age to come a dominion that we exercise over that age to come and over all of creation. That is the destiny for which men were created.

Now, what is this world to come? What's it going to be like? Is he talking about heaven? I don't think he is because he didn't use the word for heaven. Speaking of an inhabited world, what is the world that is to come?

We have some sort of an indication or a clue in that the author says, this is the world of which we have been speaking or concerning which we are speaking. Hold on a second. He has been talking about a world that is to come.

Do you remember anything in the context of Hebrews so far that we have been discussing that describes a world that is to come? The author tells us the world that is to come is going to be subjected to men, not to angels.

And this is the world, the very world of which I've been speaking to you. When was he speaking to us about the world to come? We just got done talking about the warning passage in verses one through four, where he warns of those who do not take heed to the word that is spoken through Christ.

That wasn't describing the world to come. When did he talk about the world that is to come? That was back in chapter one. I said, well, that seems like months ago. It was. In fact, that was so long ago, we were worshiping in an entirely different place at the time.

That was back in chapter one, which in terms of us, that was months ago. But in terms of the readers of this book and in terms of the text, it was only four sentences ago that we were in chapter one. And in chapter one, he is describing the world to come and what was that world to come.

It's described in all of those quotations from the Psalms that the author gives in verses five through fourteen. Now, I'll review this for you so you can see exactly what he is doing. Remember that he gives seven quotations from seven different passages in the Old Testament.

Six of those quotations were from the Psalms. One was from Second Samuel chapter seven. All but one of the quotations was concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the quotations was concerning angels.

So he described in one of those Old Testament passages, the angels and their role in creation and what God created them for. But in the other six quotations from the Old Testament, he was speaking of Christ.

Listen, and all six of those other quotations come from passages that describe the future reign of the Messiah King on Earth. All six of them describe the future reign of the Messiah King on Earth in Jerusalem from Zion.

I'll remind you of them. The first quotation that he makes in Hebrews one verse five is from Psalm chapter two. Now, Psalm chapter two describes God's answer to the rebellious nations. Why do the kings of the Earth rage?

Why do the nations rage and the people's plot a vain thing? And they're in rebellion against God saying, we'll tear off their fetters and cast their fetters from us. We're going to rebel against God's authority.

And Psalm two says, God says, this is my answer. I will install my king upon Zion and he will rule and he will reign and he will crush the nations. That's God's answer to the rebellion of the nation. Psalm two.

And in that Psalm, God calls the Messiah his son and promises that that Messiah will rule and reign amongst his enemies. And all the kings of the Earth are told to bow down and do homage to that king who reigns from Zion.

Then he quotes from second Samuel chapter seven, which was the passage where God promised to David that he would sit one of David's descendants upon David's throne and that king would rule forever and there would be no end to his kingdom.

It would endure forever and God would establish him in Jerusalem on David's throne and he would reign. Then he quotes from Psalm 97, which describes the coming of the Messiah to establish his kingdom.

And it describes this cataclysmic establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, where all of the angels of God worship him when he is crowned as king and sits down upon that throne. So all of these passages are looking forward to that world that is to come.

Then he quoted from Psalm 45, which is a marriage Psalm that described the king and his bride. It described the king in his glory and described the king and the kingdom of that king as being eternal. And it described the praise of that king being eternal.

And in Psalm 45, that king who was to rule in Jerusalem is called by the father God. He's addressed as God in Psalm 45. Then he quoted from Psalm 102, which describes the eternal praise and the eternal king of the kingdom of the Messiah.

And then he quoted from Psalm 110, which described a rule amongst his enemies stretching forth his scepter from Zion, crushing his enemies and the kings being destroyed before him. This cataclysmic description of the coming of the kingdom.

So what world to come has the author been describing? When he says in verse five, look, there is a world to come that is going to be made subject to men, not angels. This is the world to come of which we have been speaking.

What world is he describing? He is describing the rule and the reign of Jesus, the Messiah king, who is called God because he is God and he is worshipped by the angels and he establishes his kingdom in the earth and all of the nations become nothing before him.

All of the kings of the earth bow down and do homage to him and he rules and reigns in righteousness. That is the inhabited world that is to come. Now, that's not this world. Obviously, that is the world to come.

Now, if you deny that there is such a world to come, then you have to make an utter hash out of all of the passages that I just quoted to you and read. That world that is to come, guess who is going to rule and reign in that world?

Not angels, not angels, the Messiah king and all of those who belong to him. They will reign with him and sit upon his throne and we will even rule over the angels. That is the point. So verse five, when he says, for he did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking, he is describing in all of chapter one, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is to come, at which time he will reign and rule on his throne and we will be allowed, we will be graced to reign on his throne with him.

You remember when you're going.

Through chapter one, I mentioned at several points, it seems as if all I'm talking about in chapter one is the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom that is to come, the establishment of that kingdom and the overthrow of world powers.

I made mention of that. Why is it that the Jews expected such a thing to happen with their Messiah? Why is it that they expected their Messiah to return and to establish an earthly kingdom and to rule in Zion and to take David's throne and to reign forever?

Why was it that they were looking forward to that? You know why that is? Because that's what God promised them. That was what the Old Testament prophets predicted. It's exactly what the Psalms.

Look forward to.

And so that is what they anticipated. And then when Jesus came, that's what they thought he was going to set up. It's not what he came to set up the first time, but just because he didn't come and set that up the first time that he came, does not mean that he's never going to set up that kingdom.

It's going to happen. He will fulfill his word, exactly as it's described in the Old Testament. And so then in verse 6, he begins to quote the Psalm 8 that we looked at last week,.

Verse 6,.

But one has testified somewhere saying, what is man that you remember him or the son of man that you were concerned about him? You remember. Psalm 8, the quotation that is here comes right on the heels of David looking up into the heavens.

And wondering about.

The majesty of the creation. He saw the stars and the moon and the expanse of the galaxies out there and looked up and he saw the stars and he said, of all of this, what is man that you have made him to rule over all of these works of your hands?

And so then in verses 7 and 8, he describes the dominion that has been given. You have made him, that is man,.

For a little while.

Lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have appointed him.

Over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. And when you look at Psalm 8 last week, you remember there was a difference in translation between Psalm 8 and what is quoted here.

Do you remember that? For you have made him, verse 7 says, you have made him for a little while lower than the angels. Last week when we were in Psalm 8, we noticed that Psalm 8 in the NASB says you have made him for a little while lower than God.

Remember that? And I asked, you know,.

What are we to make.

Of that different translation? That seems pretty significant. Are we made for a little while just a little lower than God? Or are we made for a little while a little lower than the angels? Because those are two radically different statements.

And it is a significant difference of translation. How do we explain it? This goes back to, because we saw this in chapter 1, on a number of occasions, when there was a difference in translation between what the author quotes here and what the Old Testament text said.

Remember the author of Hebrews is quoting from the Septuagint. What was the Septuagint? The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. And so the Greek translators of the Hebrew Old Testament, when they translated into Greek, they translated that word Elohim as angels.

That's what the Septuagint read. And in the Hebrew Old Testament, the word Elohim just simply means mighty one. In fact, it is used in the Old Testament to speak of God. It's used to speak of angels who are mighty ones.

It's used to speak of human rulers who are mighty ones in the earth. You know, they are the rulers who exercise authority over us. And it is even used on a couple of occasions to describe a pagan goddess as a mighty one.

The same word is used to describe God as is used to describe a pagan goddess.

That's horrible.

No, not really, because I just did it in that one sentence. I used the same word God to describe a false God and to describe the true God.

Right.

So whether or not what is being described as an angel or God, capital G Elohim is to be determined by the context and how the word is used. So the NASB, when it translates the Hebrew Old Testament, it translated Elohim as God.

You've made him for a little while.

Lower than God.

The Septuagint, when it translated the word Elohim, translated it as angels, not as God. And which is it? Have we been made.

For a little while.

Lower than angels? Or have we been made.

For a little while.

Lower than God?

I'm going to go.

With the Holy Spirit inspired translation. That is given to us here in Hebrews chapter two. We have been made.

For a little while.

Lower than angels. See, it doesn't make sense to say that we have been made.

For a little while.

Lower than God,.

Because that implies something,.

Doesn't it?

That our status below God is only what?

For a little while.

That's right. Temporary. But there's going to come some time or condition or situation in which we are no longer lower than God, that we would be his equal or greater than God. That's not right.

In fact,.

We have been made.

For a little while.

Lower than the angels. Our status is less than God is a permanent status. Our status as less than angels is a temporary status. That's only for a little while. Even Jesus being made.

For a little while.

Lower than the angels. I was just temporary. Our being less than angels is only temporary because one day we will rule angels. Let me give to you some Old Testament passages that describe and promise the rule and reign of the saints of God over all of creation.

Daniel chapter 7, verse 18. But the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all ages to come. That's an awesome promise. The saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever.

It's ours.

The kingdom which is to come, the age which is to come belongs to the saints of the most high God. Daniel 7, verse 27. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.

His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him. Revelation 3, verse 21. Jesus promised this. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit down with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne.

In Revelation 5, verses 9 and 10. And they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God and they will reign.

Upon the earth.

Who will reign upon the earth? The saints purchased by the blood of Christ will reign, rule, exercise dominion.

On the earth.

In Revelation 20, verse 4 we see the beginning of this promise fulfilled concerning the millennial kingdom. Chapter 20, verse 4. Then I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was given to them and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Revelation 20, verse 6. Blessed and holy is the one who has part in the first resurrection over these the second death has no power but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

Revelation 22, verse 5 describes the eternal state of that reign after the new heavens and the new earth have been made and that millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ simply continues on into the new heavens and the new earth.

Revelation 22, verse 5. And there will be no longer any night.

And they will not have.

Any need of the light or of a lamp nor of the light of the sun because the Lord God.

Will illumine them.

And they will reign forever.

And ever.

That's what we're promised. Second Timothy 2, verse 12 says if we endure we will also reign with him. First Corinthians 6, 3 says we're going to judge the angels. That we've been made.

For a little while.

Lower than the angels. It's only temporary. So you can't argue that Jesus being made lower than the angels means he's less than the angels since our status as being lower than the angels is only temporary because God has created us to exercise dominion over everything.

And so then this quotation from Psalm 8 which is really Psalm 8 an allusion to Genesis chapter 1 where that whole creation mandate is given and where we are commanded to exercise dominion over all of the created world.

Genesis 1, verses 26 and 28. God said let us make man.

In our image.

According to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image.

In the image of God he created the male and female who created them.

God blessed them.

And said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Close quote.

That's what we're created to do. Now has that happened? No, because as Hebrew says we don't see everything subject to men. Something has messed that up.

Hasn't it?

Not only do we not rule and reign over everything we don't even rule and reign over this earth. We haven't even subjected this earth beneath our feet. That's not how it should have been. God created man to rule and to reign over everything that exists.

All of the work of his hands all of the expanse of it is supposed to be under our feet but it's not. This creation rules us. This creation torments us. We fight day after day after day against creation just for the bread by the sweat of our brow.

This is not how it's supposed to be. Man was supposed to exercise dominion.

The Danger of the Little Gods Doctrine

Now this is me.

Hitting the pause button for a second. We'll pause right here and warn you of a dangerous and deadly and destructive perversion of this glorious doctrine that we've been considering. There is a group of people in the charismatic movement the Word of Faith the Word of Faith teachers and the New Apostolic Reformation teachers who believe something called a little God's doctrine.

They look at all of the passages that we've been considering and describe man's dominion over all of creation. They look at those passages and they say that because God has given man control and dominion over all of the works of his hands therefore man must be God.

They believe that we are divine. They believe that we are little gods in the earth and that we are equal to God since God has given us control and dominion and commissioned us to have control and dominion over all the works of his hands.

I'll quote to you a couple of these men. Kenneth Hagan. Kenneth Hagan said this man was created on terms of equality with God and he could stand in God's presence without any consciousness of inferiority.

God has made us as much like himself as possible. He made us the same class of being that he is himself. Man lived in the realm of God. He lived on terms equal with God.