Day 2231 – Hebrews 3 – Subjection…Suffering…and Sanctification – Daily Wisdom

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Next Episode: Day 2231 – Hebrews-3 – Subjection…Suffering…and Sanctification – Daily Wisdom

Welcome to Day 2231 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Hebrews-3 Subjection...Suffering...and Sanctification – Daily Wisdom
Putnam Church Message – 04/30/2023

“Subjection…Suffering…and Sanctification” Hebrews 2:5-18

Last, we continued our extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Our focus was not to drift away from our spiritual foundation. Today, I will read Hebrews 2:5-18.

Perspective (Point of View)—that’s what the first-century readers of Hebrews needed and what we all need as we face the tsunamis of suffering in this life. We need to recognize where we are in God’s story and trust that the pioneer and perfecter of our faith will bring this world (and all His faithful followers) to a good and glorious end. The remainder of Hebrews 2 provides this perspective.

Following his comments regarding angels in chapter 1 (and a strong warning that Christians must guard against neglecting their salvation in 2:1-4,) the writer of Hebrews returns to his discussion of angels, this time in their relationship to humanity. At the beginning of God’s story, humans were originally designed to exercise dominion over the created world. But on this side of Genesis 3, after the fall of humanity, that original intention for men and women was suspended, and we are subject to suffering and the effects of a cursed world. However, the writer of Hebrews pulls back the curtain ever so briefly and gives us a teaser trailer of a future in which the ultimate Son of Man, Jesus Christ, will lead the redeemed to realize their full potential in God’s plan. Coming to their rescue, Jesus Christ will restore to humanity what they lost in Adam.

Until then, we’re all stuck in an often bleak series of scenes characterized by suffering. But even amid this suffering, God is working things together for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28). Until Christ comes and establishes the new global Eden, that is, the finalization of God’s kingdom, we can expect to suffer through the long, arduous, and often painful process of sanctification.

2:5–8

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor

and put everything under their feet.”

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.

The connection would be seamless if we read Hebrews 1:14, skip 2:1–4, and pick up with 2:5. In 1:14, the author refers to angels as ministering spirits who render service for “those who will inherit salvation.” Then, in 2:5, he mentions angels again and refers to the future world “about which we are speaking,” connecting the readers not to the warning of 2:1–4, but to the argument of 1:1–14. This suggests that the warning passage in 2:1–4 should be understood as subordinate, yet eminently important. It’s as if the author is a referee at a football game and calls a “time-out” in the action to step onto the field, point out actual or potential infractions, and warn players that a...

“Subjection…Suffering…and Sanctification” Hebrews 2:5-18

Last, we continued our extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Our focus was not to drift away from our spiritual foundation. Today, I will read Hebrews 2:5-18.

2:5–8

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor

and put everything under their feet.”

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.

As the inheritors of the salvation accomplished by Christ, /humans have a higher calling than angels on earth (2:5). God never gave dominion over this world to the angels. (Although He did assign the nations to members of His divine council at Babel until Christ brought all nations under him) The dominion position of responsibility and authority resided with His unique imagers, the crowning work of His creation—humanity. Genesis 1:27–30 describes God's specific plan and purpose for humankind in their pre-fall condition.

Before the Fall (Gen. 3), Adam and Eve had been placed on the path toward realizing this high calling. Though they started in the Garden of Eden and had a lot of work ahead of them,/ they had been endowed with purity and intellect, equipped to carry out the labor in perfect submission to God. Had they remained obedient to God, they would have continued filling and subduing the earth, expanding the Garden of Eden into a Global Eden. The scope of the dominion as initially intended is described in vivid poetry in Psalm 8:3–8, which the author of Hebrews later quotes:

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.

I can imagine King David out one night staring into the limitless depths of space illuminated with billions of stars—all works of God’s unfathomable creation, all held together by His inestimable power. As the overwhelming magnitude of creation dizzied David, he began to ponder the truth of Genesis 1: “We humans were created to rule over all this!” And he was right! That’s good theology. David was rightly astonished by the honor with which humans were crowned.

But soon, David’s eyes would have returned to the reality of this present world. As he looked around at the tattered corners of this domain, he would have been reminded that Paradise had been infested with thorns and thistles. Something happened after Genesis 1 that turned God’s intended order upside down—the fall of humanity.

The author of Hebrews grasps the glory of God’s original creation and the tragedy of humanity’s lost dominion. Though all things—without exception—had been subjected to Adam (Heb. 2:8), the current situation looks bleak.

Humans were meant to have dominion over everything on earth—but they have not. Instead, they are creatures frustrated by their circumstances, defeated by their temptations, and surrounded by their weaknesses. The ones who should be free are bound; the ones who should be rulers are slaves.

Indeed, the Fall was an utter disaster, plunging humanity into chaos, confusion, defeat, and death. As a result, humankind suffered loss in every way imaginable—intellectually, psychologically, morally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In plucking and eating the fruit from the forbidden tree (Hold up Apple), Adam and Eve were deceived by one of God’s angelic beings who chose to disobey God. They had been tricked into thinking they would become like God (Gen. 3:4–6). Instead, they fell from their trajectory of triumph and became victims of the creation they were meant to rule over.

But let’s not lose sight of where the author of Hebrews leads us in his argument. He wrote, Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them. Three letters, YET. Remember that 2:5 began with a view toward the future: “It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.”—the world to come …The Kingdom of God…already…but not yet…

God still has glorious plans for restoring rule over creation to humanity. Enter the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect imager of God.

2:9–10

But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.

Right now, the world is not fully subject to our authority. (Although, since the time of Christ, the Kingdom of God on earth was started and has been expanding through the church – it is already here, but not yet fully realized) With that in mind, we are still under the result of the fall, and sin has come and robbed us of our supreme position over creation. Humanity has fallen in Adam. But when we put our faith in Christ, we are “in Christ”—physically, genetically, historically—he acted in our place. So Adam and Eve fell; their children were fallen, and their descendants were fallen—and now we look around and see the results of the tragedy. It’s not how it used to be … or how it was meant to be. Not everything is yet subjected to humanity...but it is underway…it is already here but not yet completed.

Nevertheless, we humans still have within ourselves a drive to conquer what God once gave us to rule. Think about it. Humans try to climb the highest mountain “because it’s there.” We launch rockets into space to walk on the moon. We map every bay and peninsula, every island and inlet, every river and wasteland, to satisfy a hardwired curiosity. We dive deeper and deeper into the depths of the oceans to find just one more unknown species. We have a built-in drive that says, “Exercise dominion.” The desire is still there. But the ability was partially damaged.

We fail most of the time miserably. But amid this frustrating time that follows Genesis 3, we now see Jesus. He turns our attention away from our debilitating condition to renew our hope in a day when all things will be subdued. Though the Son was God over all, eternal with the Father, he was made “Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while” (Heb. 2:9). He took on our humble state and place in this fallen world. As Paul wrote in Philippians 2:7:

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,

Not only that, but He also suffered death on the cross (Phil. 2:8), not for His sin, but ours. He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

He did it for you and me, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Christ tasted death, reversing the fall of Adam and Eve – Unbite the Apple)

What Adam had lost, Christ regained—but not simply for Himself. Christ went from frailty to perfection in His work on the cross and triumph over the grave. He thus became the “pioneer of salvation” and “bringing many sons and daughters to glory” (2:10). When we are aligned with Him in faith and united with Him by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we begin to regain what we lost in Adam. Christ became just like us so we could be lifted and more like Him. This gives us an entirely new perspective on the ideal, the actual, and the possible. We now know the ideal—what we should be—like Adam and Eve experienced in Eden before the Fall. We experience every day the actual—what we are, divested of the glory and honor we once had, subject to defeat and death, and separated from the presence of God. And we can see in Christ the possible—what we can and will be, conformed to Christ practically in this life, but ultimately and perfectly after our resurrection and restoration in the world to come, ruling and reigning with Christ in the new Global Eden.

2:11–18

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says,

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again he says,

“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

In the balance of Hebrews 2, the subject shifts from the glorious future to the difficulties of the here and now. Humanity had been designed to rule this world as God’s imagers. That changed when sin entered the story. No longer capable of being perfect imagers, humans found themselves in dire need of renewal /but unable to accomplish it independently. Christ stepped in to reverse this situation. As a result, Jesus tasted death for everyone (2:9). But now, during this time between the accomplished work of Christ and the “until”—when everything will be made subject to Him—we who will one day partake of glory with Him are still subject to suffering. Nevertheless, Christ's superior person and work puts even our suffering in perspective.

It was through His suffering that Jesus fully identified himself with fallen humanity. Though morally innocent, He took on mortal flesh. Though deserving of glory and honor, He dwelled among the inglorious and was dishonored. Though worthy of life, He suffered death. Hebrews 2:11–12 points out that God accomplished our sanctification by becoming our “sibling”—that is, “Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

The author of Hebrews then applies three more Old Testament passages to Christ, all of which highlight His total identification with us. Christ became like us, living in this in-between time—enduring the hardships, sufferings, and even death common to all of us. He, too, felt abandoned by God, but trusted in Him through suffering, and became a testimony in this fallen world. Without this identification, He couldn’t have said, “I understand. I know what you’re going through. I know how you feel.” But the other side of the coin is that Christ’s suffering enables us to identify with Him (Phil. 3:10-11). I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

Christ Himself partook of the same flesh and blood that we have (2:14). And by suffering and dying, he struck the devil a deathblow—that ancient radiant one who had long ago enslaved humanity with death. It’s only a matter of time before Satan is utterly defeated by the coming of the Son of God in glory, when death itself will be done away with. In the meantime, we who were once enslaved to the power of death have been freed from fear (2:15). Though we are still reminded of our mortality every day through earthly suffering, the superiority of the person and work of Christ—over sin, Satan, and suffering—gives us hope and confidence to press on every day.

And not only has Christ given us hope, but He also gives us help. (John 16:7) The Holy Spirit was sent to be a Comforter and Helper (Gal. 3:29) to those who are spiritually “Abraham’s descendants,” those who belong to Christ. So Paul says (Gal. 4:6–7), And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. So when Christ came into our lives, the Spirit came into our hearts. This is a blessing only experienced by redeemed humanity—not by angels (Heb. 2:16).

Christ was made like us “in all things.” Our fate—suffering, and death—became His fate, just as His fate—resurrection and glory—will become ours. In this way, Christ became our mediator, our “merciful and faithful high priest” (2:17). When we suffer, He understands. When we succumb to the world's temptations and fall flat on our faces, He doesn’t rub our faces deeper into the muck of our transgressions. Instead, he has made a once-for-all propitiation for our sins. The word “propitiation” means an “offering that turns away (or satisfies) divine wrath against sin.” The price for our sin has been paid.

Romans 8:1

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Besides the past payment for all our sins, Christ is actively helping us amid temptation and suffering. Through His intimate association with us, Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Therefore, he steps into our trials and temptations—not to condemn us, but to help us. Whenever we are tempted, we need to cry out for help. Jesus’ ears are tuned to the tempted, and He is quick to run to our side and deliver us.

As we wait eagerly for that day when all things will be restored through Christ to the way they were meant to be, we can endure the trials and temptations of this life with the help of our faithful high priest—the one who is superior over suffering in His person and work.

APPLICATION: HEBREWS 2:5–18

Jesus: Pioneer of Perfection

The people addressed in the book of Hebrews felt like homeless refugees wandering the streets of a war-torn city, surrounded by piles of rubble with nowhere to turn for help. The author’s purpose was to meet them in their ruined condition, and put a blanket over their shoulders, shoes on their feet, and a word of encouragement in their ears. More than anything, they needed a reminder of hope to carry on. That hope came in the superior person and work of Jesus Christ. We must do a few things to have this same hope amid suffering.

First, we need to focus fully on Christ. When we turn our focus away from a sad longing for the way things used to be and from the horrifying reality of how things are, we can draw hope and strength from how things will be when Christ returns. We must focus on Jesus in times of grief, loss, tragedy, doubt, disillusionment, loneliness,...