Dominion Through Jesus

Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2 on Man’s Intended Dominion

Well, please turn in the Word of God to Psalm 8. Our preaching this morning is on Hebrews 2, and we'll be reading that as well but I'd like to go ahead and read Psalm 8 to begin because Hebrews 2 begins with the quote of Psalms 8.

Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's Word, Psalm 8. To the choir master, according to the Gitteth, the Psalm of David. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of Man that you care for him?

You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. And crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Now, please go ahead and turn to Hebrews 2 and we'll read there as well. Hebrews, of course, is about the superiority of Christ and Hebrews 1 had been comparing him to the glory of the angels and declaring that he is high above the angels.

He is far more glorious. Hebrews 2 quotes the psalm to speak of that glory. Hebrews 2, beginning in verse 5. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere.

What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.

Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus.

Crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today having read your word, anticipating the preaching of your word.

God, I pray that you would make your truths most plain and evident to us, that you would use me, a weak and fallen vessel, to preach your word with clarity. God, I pray that you would guide our hearts to contemplate your truths rightly, that we would see your son before us, and that we would honor him as the great heir of all things.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, legend has it that Alexander the Great wept because after he conquered the whole known world, there were no more worlds left to conquer. And while this speaks of one particular great man, there's a way in which it applies to everyone, that everyone has a desire for dominion and everyone lacks it.

Now, I don't know whether or not that's something that resonates with you. Maybe that's something that seems like a fairly foreign concept to you, and like the beginning of a infomercial, you know, I have to explain why this problem that you've never even thought of before is something that applies to you.

Well, it does. We lack dominion and yet we desire it. Just for example, consider how few people in this area even own as much as an acre of land. I don't. I imagine most people don't in this area. And not only that, but dominion over your own things and authority control over them, how often does car break down that you were not expecting?

You might not even know how to change the oil. We don't have dominion over small things. And this isn't just the case of us individually, but of humanity as a whole. Lacking dominion. Oftentimes, large beasts, small people, creatures, often have dominion over man.

And even small creatures, you know, bacteria and viruses, global pandemics, conquer mankind. It shows that man just does not have dominion. And then on top of all that, you have the fact that death comes for every person.

Ultimately, this environment that we are in, our own bodies, we do not have dominion over such things. Rather, in death, that final humiliating event, it is shown that we do not have dominion, but this environment has dominion over us.

And so this passage today that we'll look at, it's concerned with the dominion of man. With man's dominion over the earth. Now, maybe you've read Psalm 8 before, and you've seen it, and you've contemplated what it says with joy, and you thought, wow, that is wonderful that God has placed man over the earth.

It's true. It is wonderful. Yet at the same time, maybe, maybe you've looked at it, and you've realized how little it accords with what we see in this world. And maybe you've looked at it, and you've realized that much of what it said, at face value, doesn't even seem to match what we see elsewhere in scripture.

That mankind hasn't been crowned with glory and honor. Rather, he has been ashamed for his sin, and he is humiliated in death. Mankind doesn't have authority over beasts. Rather, beasts often maul him.

And even what we see in Job, that God speaks to Job and says, can you spear the Leviathan? Can you pierce his scales? The whole point there is that man does not have dominion over these great things that God has created.

And so, how are we to understand that psalm, given what it says at face value? How are we to understand it? Hebrews 2 explains for us that it is not fulfilled in man and humanity. Ourselves and natural pursuits since the fall, that has been lost.

It cannot be pursued by natural pursuits. Rather, dominion is accomplished in the great man, Jesus Christ. Dominion has been lost by mankind, but it has been regained by the great man, Jesus Christ. And we can have that dominion once again through him and no other way.

It speaks here, quoting Psalm 8, saying, What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything and subjection under his feet.

Putting everything in subjection under his feet. This is the way that mankind was created. Adam was created in the garden with everything under his feet. He had authority over the whole garden. He had authority over all the animals.

In fact, that is why he named the the animals. God named Adam because God had authority over Adam. Adam named the animals because Adam had authority over the the animals. It demonstrated this. And on top of that, God created man upright.

Not just upright in righteousness and holiness, but even literally and physically. We, of all the creatures, stand upright, demonstrating the special status which God had given to man upon his creation.

And all this, all this is something that mankind enjoyed through the special creation that he had received from God, being made in God's image. Being made in the image of God. I'd like us to contemplate the image of God.

So please turn all the way in the beginning of your Bible to Genesis 1. We'll look at what it says there about being made in God's image. Genesis 1 verse 26. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created him. So God created man in his image. Now that includes various things that have the likeness to God.

We're made with knowledge. You know, we have an awareness about ourselves as God does. We have righteousness. We have holiness. These things that Adam was created with so that there was a special moral quality about him.

We have the ability to relate to God in a way that other creatures do not. Now, in addition to all this, something that is consequent from that is the fact that we have dominion over the earth. Now, there are several things that are consequent of this image of God.

For example, respect. The reason why you might have respect for another person is because they are made in the image of God. James 3 .9 talks about how evil it is to curse someone who is made in the likeness of God.

But one of those other things is dominion. And as you consider the question, and many people have, well, if we're made in the image of God, how is that special given the angels also have knowledge and righteousness and holiness?

You know, what distinguishes this special way that we are created in the image of God from the angels? And I would point to several of these consequent things as being special that distinguish us even from the angels.

For example, dominion, this ability to have some kind of ownership and authority over this world. The angels were not created for such things. They do not have a physical form by which they would rule over this physical world.

But Adam was created, physical form, to rule over this physical world, to have dominion. Now, what do I mean by dominion? In part, dominion includes things like authority and ownership, includes things like power and control.

Now, if you've never thought about that, about ownership being part of how God created us, then consider that that really is consequent of that image of God. There are a lot of philosophies in our time that would say that ownership is some kind of man-made invention.

You know, you look at the the Native Americans and you say that, oh, well, you know, they didn't own land. They just roamed the wilds and therefore, you know, or certain tribes of them did anyway. And therefore, you see, it's possible to live without this notion of property.

Now, I don't know how much that was the case, but even if you ignore land, people generally have a sense of ownership over their own clothes, over their own possessions. And God created man in this way to own things.

You know, the various philosophies, communism, socialism, things that would take property ownership away from people and either dismantle it entirely or give it into the name of the public so that no one has true dominion over it, except for those few in power.

These things are essentially denials of the image of God. And this is true with all major false philosophies. You look at it and you realize, oh, wow, this is denying that God is made, excuse me, that man is made in God's image.

This isn't just the case with a denial of property ownership, but you see that in this passage, in the image of God, he created male and female. He created him. Where does a lot of modern confusion about gender come from?

It's denial that God has created man in his image. And post-modernism and the idea that morals are relative. Well, if God didn't create man in righteousness and holiness, then sure, there is no such thing.

These are all denials of that image. And something else I'll throw out there, and I know a lot of you have heard me ramble about this a lot recently, but the recent advancements in machine learning where you have things like chat GPT that speak as though they're human, I think we are often going to or we're going to frequently see as people deny that man is made in God's image, that first part, knowledge, knowledge, righteousness, holiness, dominion over the creatures, as the catechism says, that knowledge, if you deny that man has some special kind of knowledge and you see a machine that has very similar knowledge and you don't have a category for the soul or consciousness, I think you're going to see a lot of people confused about how this ends up playing out.

So, all these false philosophies, at their root, it's a denial that man is made in the image of God. And so, dominion is not just something that God has blessed man with, but it's also something that he's even commanded.

The next verse here says,. And so, God has blessed man and he has given us a joyous task of work. A lot of people don't think of work as dignified. Another false philosophy that's going around right now is an anti-work movement.

You know, a lot of people who think that work is dehumanizing. No, work is actually very dignified. God has made man to subdue the earth, to gain control over the environment around him. And in fact, as we saw recently in the preaching in Isaiah, that God has made even things like agriculture and the methods of agriculture discoverable in order for us to understand more about who he is.

Isaiah, I believe it was chapter 29, spoke of how the fact that you should put emmer at the borders of the fields or various farming techniques that they had back then, that God had revealed those things to the farmer to reveal who he is to the farmer.

You know, we have been put in this world to subdue it. These are good things. You should see work as dignified. You should see family life as dignified, as not something to be shunned, but rather it is good to, it is good to be fruitful and to multiply.

Children are not a curse upon the earth, rather they are a blessing. All these things are good. However, mankind in his sin has lost the fullness, the greatness of that dominion. Adam sinned and with that he lost that particular status in that fall, in his sin of eating that fruit that God had commanded him not to eat.

That image of God was corrupted. So now the kind of knowledge and righteousness and holiness and dominion over the creatures that he has is very, it is corrupted as well. That knowledge is corrupted and that we do not think of things as we ought.

In fact, the fact that God exists is very obvious. His thumbprint is on all creation, but we in our natural state suppress that truth in our unrighteousness. And our natural state is not to do what is good, but is actually to do what is evil.

And likewise, the dominion that we have over the earth has been corrupted as well by sin. It is not something that we have. I've already mentioned cases of animals mauling humans and pandemics. You know, I was looking back at when I first wrote down some notes for this sermon.

A lot of you don't realize this. I was in a series on Hebrews a long time ago, and I had last written down notes about this March 15th, 2020. The very next day, the lockdown was announced, and we ended up changing a lot of our priorities in preaching, what we were preaching through.

And so this had been sitting on ice for a long time. You know, I didn't even have dominion over what I was preaching the next Sunday. The world is not your oyster. You might think of it that way. And, you know, especially if you're younger and you have high aspirations.

Well, ambitions are not bad in and of themselves, by themselves, isolated. They are incredibly misguided because they fail to recognize that though this world was created for us to subdue and have dominion, the degree to which we have dominion, the kind of dominion that we can have, has all been corrupted.

And so apart from understanding that, apart from seeing it in light of the current state of the world in the fall, it is misguided. And so many people pursue such things only to be disappointed that they don't receive what they're looking for.

Or when they do, that it does not fulfill them. And ultimately, we are not masters of the world, but rather the world masters us as we die. You know, Adam was supposed to be a master of the garden. He was supposed to subdue the earth, but rather the garden mastered him and kicked him out of it.

He was not a master of the earth, but the earth mastered him as he died. However, there is hope in one who has fulfilled mankind's task and has lived perfectly apart from sin. That one is Jesus Christ.

Christ as the True Fulfillment of Psalm 8

Please turn back to Hebrews 2. So Hebrews 2 and verse 6 said, It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? I'd like to go ahead and begin by explaining the interesting feature of how this psalm is announced.

It says, It has been testified somewhere. Now, we know where it's been testified. It was testified in Psalm 8, and we know who wrote it. It was David who wrote it. But now, why does the author of Hebrews introduce it as, It has been written somewhere?

Does he not know where this psalm is? Does he not know who wrote it? I assure you, he most certainly knew that this was written by David, and this was Psalm 8. He is introducing it in this way, rather to elevate us from thinking about that human author who is contemplating mankind, David as he contemplates mankind, rather to elevate to the divine author, the Holy Spirit, and who this most is fulfilled in, where that final fulfillment actually is.

See, by elevating it from thinking of it as this contemplation of David about mankind, we can realize that it is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit inspired it. And we see that confirmation later on in verse 9, where it says,.

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus. Who is this talking about? It is talking about Jesus Christ. Now, there are some who read this in the following way.

They see verse 5, say, For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come. Okay, and so they think, All right, it wasn't to angels, rather it was to man. And then he quotes this psalm that's about man.

It says, Now putting it everything in subjection to man, he has not left out anything outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, that being man, mankind. And then in verse 9,.

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels. And so they believe that verses 5 through 8 are talking about mankind. And then we switch to talking about Jesus in verse 9, where,.

But we see him, etc. I would say that this is not the right way of thinking about this for multiple reasons. The first one, being considered the parallel to 1 Corinthians 15. Now, some of you may know, 1 Corinthians 15 talk about everything being subjected to Jesus Christ, and that he has to reign until every last enemy is put under his feet.

And so it tells us two things. It tells us, first, that we, that Christ does reign over everything. But secondly, that reign is not fully manifest. Now, if that's the case, then the reading that I've just given you, that this whole thing is about Jesus, fits perfectly with that.

We do not yet see everything in subjection to Jesus, because that is not fully yet, yet fully manifest. However, we do see him who has suffered the pains of death, etc. This is not talking about mankind being subjected to everything.

But, and we not seeing that, but us seeing it subjected unto Christ. Because, as scripture says, we don't even yet see it all subjected under Christ. It is true. He reigns over all of it, but this is not manifest yet.

And so, as the author of Hebrews is quoting the psalm, he is using it immediately to speak of Christ. Not to speak of man, and then later to make a parallel to Christ, but rather, beginning in verse 5, making a comparison between the angels and Christ.

And so, he is our, our great representative. He is the one who has fulfilled this psalm in our behalf. Gaining dominion over the whole world, being crowned as its king through his sufferings and death.

Hebrews, excuse me, Romans 5 says, Romans 5 18, therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

So Adam sinned, being the representative of mankind, brought all mankind into a fall. Jesus Christ, representing his people, has lived a perfect life, and has died in their place, bringing righteousness for all who are found in him, and gaining what Adam had lost.

He has gained that dominion, so that in him we might have that dominion as well. You know, he's the, he's the great champion. That's what happened a lot of times in battles, where two different armies would come together to fight.

Rather than everyone getting hurt, they would just send out their best guy. Right, you see this with David and Goliath, for example. They just send out their best guy, and he represents the whole army, and they agree that whoever wins, you know, we only lose one life, and then we all become your slaves.

And this is exactly what has happened. Jesus Christ has been our champion. He has won this battle for us, so that in him, with him as our representative, we can have the dominion that this passage speaks of.

The Psalms as Messianic and Christ-Centered

Now, it's important to realize this with the Psalms in general. This is not just something that's special about Psalm 8. This is really true of all the Psalms. All the Psalms are ultimately about Jesus, and if you read them in this very narrow way that only sees them in their original historical context, and only as the author was thinking about that in his own life, you're missing the messianic message that these Psalms are given.

And as we sing the Psalms in worship, it might lead your mind to the wrong place, too. For example, I really love singing Psalm 15. Psalm 15 is one of my favorite Psalms, at least with the music that it's set to in our Trinity hymnal.

It says, Lord, who shall come to thee? Who shall stand before thy face? And it speaks of one who is upright, who in word and deed never does any wrong, who slanders neither friend nor foe. And it describes this, and if you don't understand it the way it's meant to be understood, and you think that, okay, this is talking about me, and whether or not I can stand before God's face, and I have to be perfect, well, that's not the gospel.

That is the law. To understand this rightly, you must understand that it's speaking of Jesus Christ, and speaking of the gospel. We are not singing of ourselves, we are singing of Him. And as we sing these things, we can look at Him and be thankful that He has, He perfectly can stand before God's face, so that we and Him might as well.

And if you don't understand that, you won't be able to sing those hymns, you won't be able to sing these psalms with the right heart, you won't be able to pray along with them with the right heart. But if you see the way the New Testament interprets these as being fulfilled by Jesus Christ, you can appreciate them fully.

Now, it continues on here. Well, one other, one other reason I would like you to consider, this is speaking of Jesus immediately, and not speaking of man, and then, and then transitioning to speaking about Jesus.

In verse 5, it says,. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It's not to angels that God subjected the world to come. This whole book, so far, if you read Hebrews 8, you know that the whole point is this comparison between Jesus and the angels.

Jesus is far better than the angels. The angels have not been called the Son of God. The angels did not create the world. The angels are not crowned with glory and honor the way the Son is, etc, etc, etc.

And so, this simply continues that comparison, saying, for it was not to angels. What's the implication? It was to the Son. If you're following that pattern, it was to the Son. He's not suddenly switching and talking about man.

And along with that, looking at this context and how that should inform our understanding of this passage, consider what is meant by the world to come. A lot of people, coming into this without having looked at the context, might think that the world to come is talking about a future world that we have not seen yet.

It's talking about when Christ returns or something like that. I would argue that it's talking about this present world in which we live right now. If you look at verse 1 of Hebrews 1, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. So, what is the author of Hebrews concerned with? What two eras has he been comparing and contrasting? He has been contrasting the former times and these last days.

And so, the comparison he's making when he says the world to come is not talking about the world to come that we haven't seen yet, but it's contrasting these last days with the time that formerly existed.

It's talking about the state of everything given the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And what it has been speaking of before has been the former time, when the angels had given the law, etc, etc. And so, this world to come, this world to come relative of those former times, relative to the authorship of Psalm 8, it is speaking of now.

It is speaking of a dominion that has been accomplished now. This is not a dominion that Christ will have only in the future. Yes, it will be more fully manifest in the future, but this is a dominion that has been accomplished now.

And with that, I'd like you to consider that comparison between Christ and the angels in the way that dominion formerly existed. In Deuteronomy 32, 8, it says, 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, so when God divided mankind, when did he divide mankind?

That was particularly at Babel, that mankind separated and went their different ways and formed into their little family groups and units. And he divided them according to the number of the sons of God.

Who are the sons of God? Well, often in Scripture, the sons of God are the angels. And in fact, in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of Scripture that the author of Hebrews is using here, and that you see Jesus and his disciples use frequently, it is even translated there as angels.

He has divided them according to the angels. And so what that gives you is a picture of angels having some kind of authority over each one of the nations. And this is confirmed also in what you see in Daniel 10.

In Daniel 10 verses 20 and 21, it speaks of the different princes of the nations. You see Michael, who is the prince of Israel, going and fighting against the prince of Persia, talks about a prince of Greece.

And so, what you have in the Old Testament, while it only gives us little hints of these things, you see these pictures of these angels having some kind of authority over the nations. But what it compares to is Jesus Christ, that it's not to angels that God has subjected the world to come, that is, this present world now which we live.

Rather, it is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has dominion over all the nations. He rules over all of it. Now, you should be— one thing to take away from that is you should be aware of the spiritual realities that exist.

You know, this is not just a physical, naturalist, materialist world. There are spiritual forces at play, but they are spiritual forces that are underneath the authority of Jesus Christ. In fact, this is what even Revelation 20 has confirmed, that Satan has been cast down.

He can no longer deceive the nations. Do those angels still have such control over the nations? They do not, because Christ has cast down Satan. He has authority over this present world. Now, as God is drawing people together, you know, what you need in order to unite many people together is one great King over them all.

And that is what God has given us, a great King who has perfect dominion over this whole world, Jesus Christ. And consider also how this compares with what has been being said before, comparing Jesus and the angels.

It has compared the superiority, and then it said in verse 2 of chapter 2,. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

So in other words, the law, the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai, was given at the hand of angels. But now, we have been given something even better from Jesus. We have been given the good news of him, of Jesus Christ.

And so similarly, we make this comparison about who has the world been subjected to? Not to the angels, rather to Jesus. We needed a better messenger, not the angels. We needed Jesus to give us the gospel.

We needed a better one to have dominion, not angels binding the nations, closing their eyes, but rather Jesus Christ who is binding the angels, that we might be able to see that those of us, not even a part of that nation of which Michael was their prince, but rather us.

Us who are from many different tribes, many different nations, have been able to come together under this one King who's uniting all the nations, people from every nation. Now in verse 7, it says, You made him, for a little while, lower than the angels.

You have crowned him with glory and honor. And so it speaks to this great dominion that Jesus has. Jesus has authority over all things, and this is how the book of Hebrews started. It had said at the end of verse 3 in chapter 1, after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

He has been seated at the right hand of the power on high. He has been given all authority over everything. He is greater than the angels. The name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. What is that name?

It's the name, I believe it's speaking of the title, Son of God. Not that Jesus isn't eternally the Son, but Romans 1, 4, that says that upon the resurrection he is declared to be the Son, that through that resurrection, what is true about him is made known in such a way that others are called to submit to it and acknowledge it, that he is the Son of God.

He is the one that has all authority. And as it speaks of the Son of Man, this calls to mind the great Son of Man passage in the Old Testament and Daniel. In Daniel 7, it said, I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like the Son of Man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. You see, dominion was given to mankind. It was given to man, the first man, Adam, and then he has lost it, but now the Son of Man has recaptured it.

And who is that great Son of Man that the passage is talking of? It is speaking of Jesus Christ. He is that great Son of Man who has dominion over everything, who rules forever and ever and ever. And consider the way in which he rules as a son.

What does the son do? The son inherits, as it had said in verse 2 of chapter 1. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things. He has inherited all things.

All things are his. Proverbs 13 22 says that good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. God is a very good person, and he has given all things to his son. He has left that inheritance to his children, his children's children.

Now, he has left this to his only begotten Son, but in addition, all those who are counted as sons in Jesus Christ. These are things that are available to all of us, all who honor the Son. You know, he is the great heir of all things.

We must come to him with honor. We must turn away from our other allegiances and follow this one true King, because it is in him that we can share that great inheritance with him. You know, he is, he is our great representative.

It ends here saying, now in putting everything in subjection to him, he has left, he has left nothing outside his control. If all things are in his control, how can we have dominion? The answer is, we may have dominion through him.

It is not in competing with him. You know, those who try to compete with him, who want to take some part of this world as their own and deny Christ, they will not have any of it, because all of it is his.

Rather, the only way to have dominion in this world, to have what mankind has been created for, is in Jesus Christ. It is through him. It is him being our representative, and as I've said before, that is possible because him being the only begotten Son of God, in him, we may be adopted and counted as sons, so that his perfect sonship is something that includes us as secondarily sons of God, and with that, we might enjoy all that inheritance.

You know, Romans 8, 16 speaks of that inheritance, speaks of how we may be co-heirs with Christ. You want to have dominion? You can have dominion over the entire world, along with Christ. If you have come to him in faith.