Hebrews 2:8-9 (R. V.)
History is a succession of economies or dispensations, of which the Christian is the crown and completion. It follows on the rest, realises all they designed, and embraces the whole future of the coming world. The threads of the ages have been woven in the great loom of Time with the weft of the Divine purpose and the ways of human experience, and on the web is traceable in clear characters the God-given sovereignty of man. In the world that is coming man is king. "All things shall be put in subjection to him," like captured slaves to the authority and use of their conqueror,
I. "Not unto angels has God subjected the coming world." Angels filled and crowded Hebrew thought for a long time, as God's "mighty ones," the swift-winged messengers who delighted to do His will; agents of deliverance, as for the imprisoned Peter, and of punishment, as for Sennacherib. "Ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation "; and thus they had aided the Jew in the explanation of the phenomena of life, and solved the more mysterious problems of supernatural and divine action. But not to these "men in lighter habit clad" had God subjected the coming world of manhood, the advancing goodness and perfecting character and service of the sons of God.
II. But if to man, to what man is this sceptre of dominion finally granted? To all and sundry, and to them all alike, simply as men, or to particular races or one race of men? To whom is the ultimate leadership of the world to be given? We believers are the heirs of the coming world, and belong to the meek who are now beatified with salvation, and destined ultimately to inherit and rule the earth. Not "the great white race," but the great Christian race rises to joint-heirship with Christ Jesus in the salvation, and service, and sovereignty of the future of humanity.
III. On this earth and amongst men "we see Jesus"; and though, in seeing Him, our first glimpse may only confirm the impression that man has not yet fully entered on his inheritance; yet the deeper look assures us that he is on his way to it, has already been anointed with the oil of joy above his predecessors and contemporaries, and, though suffering, is really ascending by suffering to the throne from which He shall rule for evermore. ''We see Jesus," Son of Mary, "man of sorrows," "made a little lower than the angels"; but "crowned with glory"; crowned, indeed, for sacrifice, but for the sacrifice which draws all men to Him, and wins them to loving and ardent loyalty to His authority, and makes them "kings and priests unto God." That sight explains the ages' long delay; the dissolution and disappearance of the ancient and illustrious Jewish religion, and is the indefeasible pledge and guarantee that the sovereignty of man shall yet be realised, and all things be put under His feet. The Conqueror of Calvary shall take man's crown from the dust and put it on his head. The Redeemer from sin shall break the chains of man's long servitude, and lift him at once to freedom and power.
J. Clifford, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xl., p. 241.
Manhood crowned in Jesus.
The text brings before us a threefold sight.
I. Look around us. "We see not yet all things put under man." Where are the men of whom any portion of the Psalmist's words is true? "All are yours and ye are Christ's." If so, what are most of us but servants, not lords, of earth and its goods? We fasten our very lives on them; we tremble at the bare thought of losing them; we give our best efforts to get them we say to the fine gold, "Thou art my confidence." We do not possess them, they possess us; and so, though materially we may have conquered the earth, spiritually the earth has conquered us. What then? Are we to abandon in despair our hopes for our fellows, and to smile with quiet incredulity at the rhapsodies of sanguine theorists like David? If we confine our new wealth yes. But there is more to see than the sad sights around us. Looking around us, we have indeed to acknowledge with plaintive emphasis, "We see not yet all things put under Him "; but looking up, we have to add with triumphant confidence that we speak of a fact which has a real bearing on our hopes for men, "we see Jesus."
II. So, secondly, look upwards to Jesus. Christ in glory appears to the author of this epistle to be the full realisation of the Psalmist's ideal. What does Scripture teach us to see in the exalted Lord? It sets before us (1) a perpetual manhood; (2) a corporeal manhood; (3) a transfigured manhood; (4) sovereign manhood.
III. Finally, then, look forward. Christ is the measure of man's capacities. We too shall be exalted above all creatures, far above all principality and power, even as Christ is Lord of angels. What that may include we can but dimly surmise. Nearness to God, knowledge of His heart and will, likeness to Christ, determine superiority among pure and spiritual beings. And Scripture, in many a hint and half-veiled promise, bids us believe that men who have been redeemed from their sins by the blood of Christ, and have made experience of departure and restoration, are set to be the exponents of a deeper knowledge of God to powers in heavenly places, and, standing nearest the throne, become the chorus leaders of new praises from lofty beings who have ever praised Him on immortal harps.
A. Maclaren, Sermons in Manchester,2nd series, p. 170.
References: Hebrews 2:8; Hebrews 2:9. R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth,p. 273.Hebrews 2:9. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiii., No. 777; vol. xxv., No. 1509; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 213.