Ruined and Restored

 

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. (Hebrews 2:5-9 ESV).

 

Our focus this morning is on verses 5–9. Notice that this passage begins with the word "for." "For" or "because" means that he is giving a basis or defense of what he just said: "For He [God] did not subject to angels the world to come." What he had just said was that our salvation is so great and so well attested that it is dangerous to neglect it and drift into indifference. The clear reason for this is that "… God did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking."

 

We might be tempted to shrug our shoulders in confusion at this statement. It is a bit obtuse on its face value. However, that would be a great mistake. Keep in mind here that when Hebrews 2:3 speaks of a "great salvation," it is referring not only to all that Christ did by his death and resurrection to purify us from our sins (cf. Hebrews 1:3), but also to all the effects of that in the age to come. We know this because in Hebrews 1:14b the writer says that we "will inherit salvation." In other words, we experience part of it now in the purification of our sins and reconciliation with God, but there is so much more that we are yet to inherit. And that is what our reading begins to explain. He shows us this great truth of how Jesus took the creation from ruin to restoration!

 

So, when the writer speaks of "the world to come," he means the world of our final salvation—the time and the place and the relationships of glory and perfection after Jesus comes a second time and establishes his everlasting kingdom of righteousness and joy. Let me paraphrase it like this: don't neglect your coming great salvation, because in the coming world it is not angels who will have everything in subjection to them—it is not angels who will rule, but Jesus. We’ll look more into this in the coming days. Today, recognize the greatness of Jesus. He is not a good teacher, though His teaching is great; He is not a good healer, though His healing is miraculously great; He is not a good deliverer, though He is the final and great Deliverer, ruler of all things, who will take us to where He is that we might be in His perfect presence for eternity, safe from all harm and victorious over death itself! That’s the restoration He has accomplished! That’s why He “tasted death for all men”!