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Recovering Humanity's Identity

February 19, 2017 Preacher: Jeff Griffis Series: Hebrews

Scripture: Hebrews 2:5–9

Recovering Humanity’s Identity: Hebrews 2:5-9

[Scripture Reading: Psalm 8]

 

[Where are we in our study – Read each section after I reference it.*] After issuing a sharp warning (to pay attention to the gospel we’ve heard, to not neglect it as to drift, because drifting/neglecting faith will carry with it just retribution. And we are without excuse for not paying attention b/c of how God has triply affirmed the truth of the gospel)*, chapter 2 verses 5-18 pick up where the author left off at the end of ch. 1. (the eternal second person of the God-head as unique Son of the Father, deserving of worship as Creator and King)* From the Son’s deity in relationship to angels now the author will emphasize his humanity as compared to angels.* So verses 5-9 that we study closely today are a transition into this second theme, which expounds on our need for Christ’s full humanity to be the founder of our salvation, his suffering and death to be the perfect sacrifice as well as our continuing faithful high priest. (10-18)*

Pray

 

(Here’s what I believe we are meant to see in this transitional section from exalting his deity to expressing the importance of his humanity – which we might miss if not slowing down and savoring its truth, like skipping the appetizer to go straight to the main course in vv. 10-18.)

Jesus Christ, the God-man, recovers for humanity that which we lost—our identity.

 

A few things we need to get in order to grasp and apply its truth: 1. How the verses serve as a transition in the flow of his argument, 2. Understanding David’s words in context, and 3. How the author re-interprets David’s words Christologically.  – Then I believe you too will see that Jesus recovers for humanity that which we have lost—our identity.  (the very purpose of our existence)

 

  1. Transitioning emphasis from the deity of the Son to His humanity.
    1. If we hop from the end of ch. 1 over the passionate preacher’s warning, we see that he left off discussing that God promised to put everything under the feet of His Son. Now he picks up there again to say, the promise doesn’t apply to angels, but to man, more specifically the God-man. It is this one true man who will rule the world to come.
    2. So that’s what gets the author to quoting David’s lyrics in Psalm 8.
  2. David’s words in his own context.
    1. Now the audience is meant to know that David was talking about mankind, and especially those who exercise the authority God had given in submission to God’s own authority.
      1. For who is like man among God’s creation? To think, to feel, to create… to exercise His authority over His creation in submission to His will for us. But all of this was intended in relationship to Him. – David is astounded by looking in amazement at all of creation that God singled out man to be his special creature to exercise dominion over all that God had made.
      2. We were made to exercise dominion on God’s authority. (Every domain is God’s domain. This is his planet. We are his creatures. We ought to be doing His bidding. We have lost our identity as his prize creation placed here to do His bidding.) – In the presence of God, we wouldn’t be like, well why should I listen to you? When Moses heard from God in a burning bush, and God told him to take off his sandals, notice he didn’t say, “why do I need to do that?” He heard the voice of God, and obeyed. When Moses asked God if he could see his glory and God told him that if he saw his face he’d die, but that God would hide him in a cleft until he past by and he could look at his back. Moses was like, “How come?” NO! We are here to belong to God and to do his bidding.
    2. But the NT audience (under the new covenant) is also meant to acknowledge in David’s expression that it’s a shock that God even messes with humanity anymore. We were meant to rule his creation (even while our authority is derived authority) in close relationship to him. But humanity has botched that up royally (pun intended). David, aiming to be a true theocratic king, desired to be the kind of man that God had designed humanity to be, desiring to lead the people of Israel as the kind of kingdom that God had chosen them to be.
      1. When got placed Adam & Eve in the garden, he instructed them to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, and to rule well over all the other creatures, whether the fish of the sea or the birds of the air or the living things upon the earth. But when Eve & Adam sinned, they rebelled against deriving authority from God and receiving knowledge from God, breaking relationship with God and losing our true identity.
      2. God later flooded the earth and wiped out mankind, preserving only Noah and his family. Although this was a second chance for mankind to more appropriately respond to God, it didn’t reverse the effects of the fall. Our identity was still lost. Sin and death still had its grip, evidenced yet in the time of Noah himself.
      3. Then God chose for himself a man (Abraham) to make of him a people who would be set apart to God from among the race of man to receive his special favor and display his power and authority. But that didn’t reverse the curse of death that Adam had ushered in by disobedience to God.
      4. Even when he displayed his unmatched power and mercy by bringing Israel up out of Egypt, even when he gave men the law (for how to live life with relationship to God’s holiness), even when he gave them a place of worship and constant reminder of his presence, they displayed their broken humanity time and time again.
      5. Even when God replaced the first king who did not continue to honor him (Saul) with David, a man after God’s own heart. –That heart was still subject to corruption. Man had lost, from the moment of disobedience in the garden, his true identity of belonging to God and doing his bidding. We had in fact rendered ourselves incapable of it. à We needed the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham (not the promise of a great nation, not the promise of a place/a home for that nation, but the promise of all the nations being blessed through this chosen people). We needed fulfillment of God’s covenant with David that a Messiah would come to establish His throne forever. (That brings us back to the place where the author of Hebrews explains the text through the lens of Christ.)
  • A Christological re-interpretation. (It shouldn’t surprise us when NT authors do this. What should surprise us is if people do it today in ways NOT indicated us such in the NT.)
    1. Vv. 8b-9, instead of expressing “the lofty status of humankind in the created order,” the preacher describes “the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus in relation to the world to come.” (O’Brien) This is certainly the case in v. 9.
    2. In putting everything hypotasso (used four times in this section – verb – to be submitted, made subject to… to be brought under his dominion or authority), God left nothing outside his control or independent of his sovereignty. At present, though, we do not yet see everything hypotasso to him.
      1. With reference to man, this means that the fall ruined our ability to accomplish said dominion in right relationship to God. With reference to Jesus, this means that our current age is between the “already” and the “not yet.” Christ’s rule has been inaugurated (in a spiritual kingdom) but we do not yet see it’s perfect fulfillment, still to come at the end of days when his dominion will be complete.
      2. Brief application interjection – This means that all the horribly botched versions of man’s dominion we see, the political chaos we are living, is to be expected. That doesn’t mean that some of us might not be particularly burdened and gifted to make a difference for Christ in government, but it does mean that we do not place our hope in any political system. Nor do we elevate or denigrate any particular governing authority or specific leader, we pray for their wisdom and salvation and we pray for God’s justice and for God’s mercy and above all, God’s will to be done. Because we understand clearly that at the end of the day God wants our hearts to honor him and that on the last Day, our Lord will rule with perfect justice and mercy in the perfection of his goodness.
      3. (Again,) The inaugurated rule of Christ – He now rules in the hearts of his people (already) but that kingdom will one day yet become His fulfilled rule over everything, whether or not we have given him rule of our hearts. (not yet) But the interim btwn the already and the not yet is God’s patience with us in order that Christ’s work might first bring many sons to glory by faith in Him, not yet by force of His righteous scepter.
    3. Applied by faith – But we see Jesus à This is spiritual sight—faith—which we receive by the conviction and regeneration brought about by God the Holy Spirit. (Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.) à What do we see with the eyes of faith in Jesus?
      1. Who for a little while was made lower than the angels (incarnation)
      2. Through suffering and death (humiliation)
      3. With glory and honor crowned (exaltation)
      4. So that by God’s grace – this is the key to comprehending and embracing salvation
      5. He might taste death for all (count noun – each one considered individually) – tasting death means that he went through it in a very literal sense – and his death is something that can be applied on your behalf personally
    4. To regain God’s purpose for you, you must be remade, identified no longer with humanity disfigured in sin and death, but identified in Christ.
      1. Who are you? What defines you? – To get a right answer on those, you really must ask: Who is God? What defines him? (& How has he revealed himself so that I may know the answer to that question?)
      2. Apart from embracing God on his terms, life is an empty beating against the air and meaningless suffering. (Macbeth’s famous ‘tomorrow’ speech; a truth confirmed by Solomon, the wisest man – Ecc. 1:2) – But we will see next week that precisely because he identified with us, but without our sin, and died to atone for sin, and rose to defeat death and bring us life… by faith we can be identified with him! We can be restored to the very plan and purposes of God, to be in relationship to him, belonging to him and doing his bidding.
    5. Therefore, people of God, take heart. We can worship God rightly and live confidently in Christ. (Hebrews 12:28-29 and 13:20-21) We, God’s people, redeemed by His grace, live with meaning and purpose and hope… precisely because our identity is in Christ.

 

 

— To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Act 5, scene 5, lines 19-28)

 

(Ecclesiastes 1:2, ESV)

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,

    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

(NIV)

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”

    says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

    Everything is meaningless.”

 

 

 

Recovering Humanity’s Identity (Hebrews 2:5-9)

 

 

Jesus Christ, the God-man, recovers for humanity that which we lost—our identity.

 

 

Transitioning emphasis from the deity of the Son to His humanity

 

 

 

 

David’s words in context (from Psalm 8)

 

  • His own context

 

 

 

 

  • New covenant context

 

 

 

 

A Christological re-interpretation

 

 

 

  • The inaugurated rule of Christ

 

 

 

 

  • Applied by faith

 

 

 

 

 

Because of grace you can regain God’s purpose for you and live a confident, meaningful life… identified in Christ.

 

Take It Home: (Discussion Questions for Discipleship Groups meeting in homes or at church)

  • In conversations about who we are, what might people typically use to define and describe themselves?
  • How does our understanding of the Old Testament context of man’s relationship to God inform our understanding of God’s grace as demonstrated in the New Testament?
  • Having looked at this text more closely (Heb. 2:5-9), what would you say is the hardest question to ask of the text, and of how we should apply it? (How would you attempt to answer those in your group?)

More in Hebrews

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Equipped to Follow the Great Shepherd

June 24, 2018

Helping Leaders Lead

June 17, 2018

Follow the Leader: Leading Well