In ancient times, there was a type of warfare that was often employed, which is illustrated in the familiar story of David and Goliath. Everyone here I am sure is familiar with this story. But what I want to emphasize from the story is the manner in which the battle was fought between the Philistines and the Israelites. Goliath was the dread champion of the Philistines. And everyday he would come out and taunt the army of God and challenge them to put up a man who would fight him. And if you remember, he offered the Philistines to be the slaves of Israel if their champion should win, and said that if the Israelite lost, then they Israelites would serve the Philistines.
Now that was a popular method of combat in those days; to allow your champions to duel together which decided the fate of the battle. It meant much less cost and loss of life for either side. But if you remember, the Israelites had no one that wanted to take on the giant. Goliath was such a formidable, powerful warrior that defeating him must have seemed impossible and a sure way to an early, inglorious death. But of course you know the story, and David, who was a type of Christ, (those of you who have been coming to Bible study knows this) David who was a type of Christ offered to take on the champion. And by the strength of God, he prevailed.
Though the Bible teaches this is an actual, historical event, it also serves as a metaphor of what Christ did on our behalf. We as the church are the army of God, and the devil is the ruler of this world, who taunts us, and tempts us, and has enslaved the world through his deceit. But Christ came to our rescue, and as our champion, as the Captain of the hosts of the Lord has fought against evil and prevailed, and we that are his have prevailed as well. We are no longer enslaved to the devil and the world, but we are victorious over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Martin Luther, the great reformer who lived in the 1500’s, wrote a hymn called “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” in which he speaks of this victory over Satan.
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
Now that is what this passage we are looking at today is teaching us. Jesus has been presented in the preceding verses as superior to the angels in every way. The author now goes to the next logical step, which is that not only is Jesus superior in position and authority, but also in power, and has defeated the angelic powers that rule in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 tells us this is so; “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly places.” And in defeating these angelic powers and overcoming sin and death, He has set free man from his enslavement to sin, and restored to man what he lost in the fall, which is his dominion over the world.
Jesus is Superior, He is our Champion, He is the second Adam, He is the representative Man, He is fully God and fully Man, the hypostatic union of divinity and humanity in perfect fellowship with God, because He is the Son of God and perfectly able to intercede for men, because He is the Son of Man. So Jesus avails for man, as man’s champion, as man’s perfect representative, as foreshadowed by David triumphing over Goliath on behalf of the people of God.
Now the author of Hebrews broaches the subject of man’s favor of God by saying as his introductory argument what we read in vs5, “For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.” Note carefully what he says here; God did not subject to angels the world to come…” The key is understanding what he means when he says, “the world to come.” He is referring to the new heavens and the new world which will be remade at the consummation of the Kingdom of God, when Jesus Christ returns in judgment and to claim His church. Peter says in 2 Peter 3 that this present world and it’s works will be burned up with an intense heat, but we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The point that is being made, is that though we don’t see our destiny being fulfilled now, man was created to have dominion over the world. Angels were not created for that purpose. But let me preface this by saying that I believe the Bible teaches that God has created man in two stages. The first stage was the physical creation in which the world was to be our dominion. The second stage is the spiritual creation. In the spiritual creation we have been promised restored dominion over the world, or worlds. But in the physical creation when man fell he relinquished his dominion to the devil and his angels.
Now let me try to explain. In Genesis 1:26 it says, then 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 him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God 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.”
Now there is a month of sermons in those verses, but let me just focus on my point; God said man was to rule over the earth, to rule over all of creation, to subdue the earth. We were made in the image and likeness of God, to be a fitting companion for God. To rule and to reign with God. But at the fall, man sinned, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And because man listened to the serpent’s lies and deceit, Satan usurped the power to rule this world which was rightfully ours. Consequently, I John 5:19 says, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”
A theologian named G. K. Chesterton once said, “Whatever else is, or is not, true, this one thing is certain. Man is not what he was meant to be. Instead of having the mastery, he is mastered. Instead of ruling, he is enslaved. Instead of being characterized by strength, he’s characterized by great weakness. Instead of being an ally of the Lord God, subject to Him, the Scriptures tell us that he is a rebel against God. Instead of being characterized by glory, he’s characterized by shame. Man seeks his destiny by tyranny and cruelty. There is still something planted within the nature of man that leads him to want to rule.”
So the present condition of man, mastered by sin, but he’s promised dominion. Martin Luther said, and I paraphrase, “man was tied in a knot, which only God can unravel.” What’s the solution? Well, after saying, “But now we do not see yet all things put under him,” the author goes on to say, “But we see Jesus.”
But it is not immediately as the Son of God which the author describes, but as the Son of Man. And he quotes from Psalm 8, a psalm of David. The psalm is speaking regarding man, but it can also be interpreted Messianically, as the Son of God. But literally, it speaks of man, and the author of Hebrews is interpreting it that way, though seeing it fulfilled in the representative man, the Man Christ Jesus.
In Psalm 8 which is quoted in part here in Hebrews, David speaks in wonder at the consideration which God has given to men. He says, “What is man, that You are concerned about him?” David finds it astonishing, as he considers the grandeur of the heavens, or looks out at far distant mountain ranges, and recognizes the smallness and insignificance of man in comparison to the magnitude of creation.
As David considers the creation of man, and God’s purpose in putting all things in subjection to him, David asks, “What is man, that you are concerned about him?” David realizes that man was intended for so much more. I’m reminded of the song by a popular band called Switchfoot which has the line, “we were meant to live for so much more…” We were meant to live with God, to be like God, to be one with God, and to rule with God. And David is astonished as he considers this.
The psalmist goes on to say, “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS.” The key to that sentence is “for a little while.” It can actually be interpreted two ways, and both are true; We were made a little lower than the angels, and we were made or a little while lower than the angels. That is, until the world to come comes in it’s fulfillment. This, I believe, is the reason for the jealous anger of Satan towards the church. He wanted to be like the Most High. But chapter 1vs14 says that God chose to make angels His ministers for the sake of those who would inherit salvation. And salvation belongs to men, not to angels. Angels who have rebelled against God are eternally damned. But for man, who has rebelled against God, He has prepared a way for us to be reconciled to Him, and to escape our condemnation.
In fact, in 1 Cor. 6:13 Paul said that we who are Christ’s will one day judge angels. Angels are superior to us now in power, and in the fact that they are spirit beings, and not subject to natural limitations of the body such as we have. But at the consummation, when Christ appears, 1John 3:2 says we shall be like Christ, for we shall see Him as He is. At that time, we will no longer be lower than the angels, but we will be exalted, and glorified, and share in the inheritance of Christ. What a magnificent thing to consider. No wonder David said, “What is man, that you are concerned so about Him.”
David says, “You have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over the works of your hands, you have put all things in subjection under his feet.” Now as I have already said, man lost his crown. Man lost his glory at the fall. Man no longer has dominion over the world, but the world has dominion over man. As the scripture says, “in Adam all died.” As Adam our forefather sinned, so sin passed to all men, and therefor all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
But God raised up another Adam, the Second Adam, to take the place as the representative man, as the author of a new creation, even Jesus Christ. He as our champion was able to overcome the world, and triumph over sin and death, and He is exalted in heaven to sit at the right hand of the throne of God. And through His victory, we are victorious. Ephesians 2 tells us that we are spiritually seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. Listen to this; Eph. 2:1-7 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
So for now, the author of Hebrews tells us in vs.8, though we were intended to have dominion, we do not yet see all things subjected to him. The world is still in darkness. Death and sin still exist in the world. The angels of the rebellion still have a measure of power on this earth. We do not yet see all things subjected to man.
But we do see Jesus. He is our champion. He is our representative. We do see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for a little while, but now He is no longer so, but He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High, God having put all things under His feet.
We see, as we look out over the world, creation is not subject to man. Man is not what he is going to be. All things are not yet put under him. But if we look up and see Jesus, what do we see? We see the guarantee that these promises will be ours, because he is our great representative. He is the Champion that has defeated sin and death for all men.
There is something interesting which is inferred here, I believe, and verified elsewhere in the scriptures, that Jesus in making Himself a little lower than the angels, in taking upon himself human nature and human flesh, became one of us, and remains one of us. He took upon Himself human nature, and remains so, for our sake. He betrothed human nature to Himself, forever. That He might be our great High Priest, the perfect Mediator between God and man.
Charles Spurgeon said, “We know that had (Jesus) only been God yet still he would not have been fitted for a perfect Savior, unless he had become man. Man had sinned; man must suffer. It was man in whom God’s purposes had been for a while defeated; it must be in man that God must triumph over his great enemy.” So Christ is forever wedded to human nature. He ascended into heaven in human flesh, and will in the same manner come again.
Now that is love that is incomprehensible. Imagine a king of a great country, of great wealth and power, falling in love with a peasant girl in a far away country. And because of his great love for her, laying aside the privilege and rank of his own country, to became a peasant in her country. Or in a more contemporary setting, imagine a super hero movie where the supernatural, immortal hero falls in love with a mortal young woman, and somehow relinquishes his immortality for the sake of having his love on earth. Such illustrations pale in comparison to what Christ has done for us in taking on human flesh and human nature, that He would forever be our bridegroom.
Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor. Because He was willing to humble Himself even to the point of death, to subject Himself to torture from His own creation, to being reviled and yet silent, to being whipped, to being spit upon, to being naked and hung up for the world to walk by and shake their heads. What humility was Christ’s. And because He committed Himself to suffer death, He was crowned with glory and honor. He was exalted to the right hand of the Father. And because He is at the right hand of God, we can rest assured that His sacrifice was considered acceptable to God.
As Paul says in Phil. 2:8-11 “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Notice in our text the last little statement, “That He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone,” which outlines the spiritual significance of His death. In other words, the spiritual application of His death was to provide the means for the new birth to everyone who believes in Him. In dying, He died for us. He died so that we might live. He paid the price that was due to us, so that we might have life through Him. His death wasn’t merely His own physical death, but was the substitutionary atonement which was applied on man’s behalf.
Now that is the grace of God that the author speaks of. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. It’s a gift of God. God gave His only begotten Son to die, so that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is the love of God. It required a satisfaction of God’s justice. But in addition to that, God gives us life by transferring to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That results in new life. Spiritual life. We are a new creation. Man’s second birth is by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ who tasted death as the representative man, as our Champion. Though He triumphed over sin, He suffered unto death, for our sakes.
And as He is now exalted on high, so we shall be. We who believe in Him, who worship Him for who He is and what He has done, will be caught up together to be with Him, in the new heavens and the new earth, as His new creation, that we might receive glory and honor with Him. O Lord, What is man, that you are thus concerned about Him? I can hardly fathom this tremendous inheritance that you have procured for us. The question remains, what is your response to this grace? What is your response to Him today? Will you bow your knee to Him, and worship Him, and exalt Him, and live for Him today? He has given an invitation to all, to come to Him, to find remission of your sins and to have the new life which is eternal, in which we will find our fulfilled destiny as sons and daughters of God. Do not delay. Come to Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation.
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