Hebrews 2:5 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

For unto the angels: the Spirit having applied the doctrine of the great gospel Minister, exceeding the prophets of old, and having a more excellent name and office than angels, in respect of his Deity, pursues to show these Hebrews, that he is so likewise in respect of his humanity, the other nature in his person. This he proves negatively in this verse. The rational particle introducing, shows it to be a demonstration of his excelling angels, having a world to come subjected to him, which they have not; for so none of these incorporeal, intellectual, spiritual substances, so often diminished before, have; because those Hebrews were more addicted to esteem of them, and the law ministered by them, than of God the Son incarnate and his gospel. Hath he not put in subjection; this God the Father, Son, and Spirit, the Creator who formed all things, and had right of disposing all things under their proper Lord, hath not put under their ordering or government; he never decreed, foretold, or promised that it should be under their authority. The world to come, must be interpreted by that scripture, where it is asserted and proved that it was subjected to the great gospel Minister, and that is in Psalms 8:5-8. It is a world that must consist of heaven and earth; compare Hebrews 2:3,6,7. It was a world not come when Paul wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews, see Hebrews 2:8. It is a world distinct from this present world, Ephesians 1:21, in which God-man must eminently reign; a world between this world and a heavenly one which is to come, in respect of us, Luke 18:30 1 Timothy 4:8. A world to come, which the angels have nothing to do with, as they have with this, which is greatly under their administration; such as consists of a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, 2 Peter 3:13; for Peter asserts, that Paul, according to the revelation given him of it, had written to these Hebrews, and eminently in this text. And unto this do the prophets give witness, Isaiah 65:17,18 Isaiah 66:22: and of his day of rest and sabbath in it, as Hebrews 4:7,9,10; so Isaiah 66:23. And for their restitution in this world to come do the creatures groan, Romans 8:19-23, that they may be therein under the happy administration of the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven. And of this the 8th Psalm \Psalms 8:1-9\ doth assure us; for it is not, as some have imagined, a representation of the state of the first Adam, but of God-man, the Second Adam, and his world; for Christ applieth it to himself, and testifieth it was written of him, and it is not compatible in itself to any other, Matthew 21:16. This world to come is a heavenly world, begun by Christ to be created when he commenced to preach the gospel covenant, which angels were not to meddle with, as they did the law, but was only to be ministered by men, Psalms 8:2; through whose ministry of the word by the Spirit, is ingrafted into the sinful nature of the elect a new creature, whereby they are delivered from this present evil world, Galatians 1:4, and fitted for being inhabitants of this new one, 2 Corinthians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17; compare Ephesians 4:22-24; which hath been preparing by Christ's casting down heathenism and Judaism by the gospel, Luke 10:18 Hebrews 12:26, and bringing them into a new world of ordinances and church privileges, fitted for them, and called by the Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, it surpassing the Sinai church state as much as heaven doth earth. And he is now proceeding to cast down papism, or Roman Christian paganism, and Mahometism, Revelation 19:19-21, and to subdue the generality of men, both Jews and Gentiles, to himself, Malachi 14:9 Romans 11:25,26; when this Christian heavenly frame shall be advanced to a higher degree by the descent of the new Jerusalem from God out of heaven, Revelation 21:1,2 Revelation 22:1-5; in the which the kingdom of Christ shall be most peaceable, glorious, and prosperous. And to the rendering of it eminently so, Scripture seems to intimate, that the bodies of the martyrs of Jesus shall be raised, and their souls united to them, and so be made conformable to Christ's glorified person, Philippians 3:21; compare Revelation 20:4-6. These will their Lord send down into this new world, and to have the same state in it, and to perform the same offices to the saints, as the angels had and did in the world past, Mark 12:25; there to be kings, and reign as the angelical thrones and principalities did before, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 20:4. As priests, help on the saints duties, and instruct them in the matters of the kingdom of God, and so answer in conformity to their Head, as he was forty days after his resurrection; during whose reign in this new world the devil shall be chained up, so as they shall not be infested, nor the nations deceived, as formerly they were by him, Revelation 20:1-3, so as there shall be no need of good angels to oppose or restrain him. At the close of which thousand years the devil will be loosed for a little while, as Hebrews 2:3,7,8, and infest the world, when the great Lord and King of it shall in the greatest solemnity descend into the air with all his hosts of angels; and by the trumpet of God sounded by the arch-angel, the dead in Christ shall first be raised, and the living changed in the twinkling of an eye; and being openly owned and acknowledged by the Supreme Judge, shall be assessors with him; when the judgment shall proceed by the angels bringing devils and all impenitent mankind to the bar of Christ, where the vast accounts of them shall be cast up and audited, and on the charge against them they shall be found speechless and convict, so as the great Judge shall solemnly sentence them, and it be assented to and applauded by all the saints, Revelation 20:2,11,12,15, compare 1 Corinthians 6:2,3, and be as gloriously executed by the ministering angels, Matthew 13:41-43. And so this great King and Lord, having thus shut up the scene of this world, shall return in triumph into the heaven of heavens, and there in the height of his glory deliver up his kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all, 1 Corinthians 15:22-28. Whereof we speak; we describe it further in the following testimony, and in this Epistle, as to some part of it.