The last several months, we’ve been in 1 Peter. So, it may surprise you that we’re turning to Hebrews. But over the next four weeks, from different passages, we’ll be doing a four-part series for Advent. We titled the series, “A Weary World Rejoices”; and our plan is to address various ways God answers our weariness in the coming of his Son, Jesus. Today, we’ll observe Christ’s coming through the lens of dominion in Hebrews 2.

Our world is good and beautiful. Built into creation are things that make us wonder and laugh. Through the created order, God reveals his invisible attributes and divine power. We should give him thanks for all his creative works.

At the same time, the brokenness of this present world can leave us weary. That weariness might come from hardships experienced in childhood. Maybe it’s an ongoing battle with illness. Maybe it’s relational conflict. The political climate can sometimes leave us distressed. Or maybe it’s a bout with depression, loneliness. There’s also the grief of losing people we love, the grief of tiny hands never held, the grief of death taking another loved one. Perhaps the battle against your own sin drains your spirit.

Many aspects to this broken world can leave us weary. Mentally and emotionally, some of you (at times) are tempted to lose heart. Your experience isn’t strange to the Bible. Psalm 6:6, “I’m weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears.” Psalm 69:3, “I’m weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.” Job 30:16, “My soul is poured out within me…The night racks my bones and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.” Ecclesiastes 1:8, “All things are full of weariness.” Romans 8:22, “the whole creation has been groaning.”

Your weariness isn’t strange; it’s a recurring tension that makes sense in a broken world. The hymn from which we got the title for the Advent series is O Holy Night; one line says, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining.” Things aren’t supposed to be this way. Hebrews 2 feels the same tension, the same weariness.

Christians have faced persecution from outside—people have plundered their stuff and imprisoned their friends. They have also faced passivity from inside—their own sinfulness is a daily struggle. They are weary in the race set before them; and that weariness is making them want to quit on Jesus. Hebrews exists to help Christians overcome that weariness of heart by considering Jesus (Heb 12:3). So, in our own weariness, let’s read what he wants us to consider about Jesus in verses 5-18…

⁵ For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we’re speaking. ⁶ It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you’re mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? ⁷ You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you’ve crowned him with glory and honor, ⁸ putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we don’t yet see everything in subjection to him. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹ For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, ¹² saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” ¹³ And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” ¹⁴ Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Verse 5 comes in the middle of an argument. Verse 1 warned that we shouldn’t drift from the gospel of Jesus. Rather, it deserves our closest attention. Verse 5 now adds a supporting claim: God subjected the world to come, not to angels but to Jesus. If Jesus rules the world to come, how much more ought we pay attention to him.

But there’s more to it than that. It’s not simply that Jesus will rule at some point in the future; he rules the new world even now. Why’s that significant? How does that answer the tension you feel in this weary world? And what does this have to do with Advent, when we celebrate the first coming of God’s Son?

Dominion Entrusted and Celebrated in Creation

Well, verse 6 helps answer these questions; and it does so by pointing us first to Psalm 8. So, go with me to Psalm 8, where we see dominion entrusted to man and celebrated in creation. David begins Psalm 8 and ends it with the same words: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” He says, “You’ve set your glory above the heavens.” His glory is so great that even the heavens can’t contain its fullness. God’s majesty overwhelms David. He’s awestruck by the Lord’s imposing greatness.

But what also strikes David is God’s willingness to bend down to man. You’d expect a mighty warrior to take great armies into battle. But in verse 2, God humiliates his enemies with the praise of babies and infants: “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.” God uses the weak to shame those who think they’re strong.

Also, given the vastness of God’s universe, David is floored that God shows such great concern for man. Verse 3, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you’ve set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You’ve given him dominion over the works of your hands; you’ve put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.”

David can’t believe it! This majestic God who spoke creation into existence—he entrusted man with this incredible privilege to rule creation. And if you caught the wording of verses 6-8, it recalls the purpose of mankind from Genesis 1:26-28. “God created man in his own image” to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and so on.’” Ruling creation is one way we image God—this is a glory of humanity. David celebrates this grand purpose in Psalm 8.

Dominion Lost in Adam/Sin

Only there’s a tension, isn’t there? Psalm 8 sounds way too optimistic, doesn’t it? In our experience, leaders abuse their authority. Families are full of strife. Parents neglect children. People can’t even rule their tongues. Instead of ruling creation, creation rules people. People destroy the earth itself. So, what do you mean, David, that God put everything in subjection to man? Doesn’t look like it.

The writer of Hebrews feels the same tension. Hebrews 2:8 says, “at present we don’t yet see everything in subjection to him,” meaning “to mankind.” In the original creation, God left nothing outside man’s control. But we don’t see that now. Why not? Because now we see man functioning as he was cursed, not as he was created.

You see, Adam was the first representative of humanity. Adam forfeited dominion. He failed to rule the serpent and crush his head. Sin entered the world through this man, Adam. On this side of Adam’s sin, we’re born with the same sin nature. Sin warps us such that our rule hardly images God’s rule. Even when we try to rule creation as we ought, our rule is tainted with mixed motives. Also, we find that no matter how hard we try to subdue creation, to establish order, to make peace, death puts a swift end to our efforts. Cancer takes its toll. Old age wears us out. The grave swallows.

Dominion Restored in Jesus Christ

But that’s not where Hebrews leaves us. Hebrews recognizes the tension and then gives the answer in verse 8: “Now in putting everything in subjection to him [i.e., mankind], he left nothing outside his control. At present, we don’t yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him [i.e., another man, the Man] 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.”

What’s his answer to the tension? What’s his answer to the weariness of this broken world? His answer is that dominion is restored in Jesus Christ. “We don’t yet see everything in subjection to [man]”—that’s the tension. Here’s the answer: “But we do see him.” That is, we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor.

But why did God crown Jesus with glory and honor? Why did God subject the world to come to Jesus? Why him over everybody else? Well, notice the extent of his humility. In 1:2, we learn that God’s Son created the world. In 1:3, this Son is the “radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature.” He upholds the universe by the word of his power. Everything that exists—visible and invisible, supernovas, subatomic particles, angels, algae—the Son upholds it all. He’s worthy of worship in 1:6.

This Son “for a little while was made lower than the angels.” This Son took on flesh. This Son commands the angels, yet angels announced to shepherds that they’d find this Son as “a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” But why? Why would this God, who sets his glory above the heavens according to Psalm 8—why would this God choose a position lower than the angels and become man? Why did he choose to restore dominion this way and not another way?

Hebrews 2 gives us several answers. One, we needed a new and better Adam—that’s one reason God became man. The way Scripture tells our story, humanity relates to Adam in a special way. I mentioned before that he represents us. His actions affect the whole group. His success would’ve been our success. But as things went, Adam failed; he rebelled against God’s word. As a result, the rest of us did too.

Any hope for humanity would have to come from a new Adam, a new human representative. We needed a new Adam to obey and then lead a new humanity into a new world. God became a man to become our new and better Adam. That’s why Hebrews 2 connects Psalm 8 with the work of Jesus—he’s the ideal Adam, the ideal man. He’s our new representative to lead us out of this weary world.

But important to recall is also how Adam was tested in the Garden. God gave Adam his word and Adam was required to obey it. Adam failed the test, and by failing, Adam took his whole family with him into sin. Well, as the new Adam, Jesus was likewise tested. He too had to obey. That’s another reason God had to become man—to pass the test as a man. That’s why verse 10 says that Jesus was “made perfect through suffering.” Not that he was lacking something morally before; but that his obedience was proven through his sufferings. Jesus passed every test.

But don’t think, “Oh sure! Easy for him to do. He was God.” Yes! He was God in the flesh. But he didn’t lean on his divine nature, so to speak, in order to succeed. No, he succeeded as a man in whole and unwavering obedience to his Father’s will. He bore up under every pressure in this weary world, and he passed every test.

One of the greatest tests was when his obedience required him to die. Verse 9 says, “so that he might taste death for everyone.” You can’t get the world to come, if death is in your bones. Death means that you’ve got a sin problem. Death is God’s judgment against sin. Nobody can beat death, because nobody is sinless. We’re all born in Adam. The only way to beat death is to have no sin.

That’s what makes Jesus so unique. He became like us in every way, yet without sin. He chose to die not because of sins that were his own. He tasted death for our sake; and the only way he could taste death was as a man. Spirits or angels don’t die. So, this is yet another reason God’s Son became man—to die for us.

He also became man to defeat death for his people. Listen again to verses 14-15: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Another reason God became man was to destroy the devil’s power by passing through death. Death is scary because of sin. We know that judgment awaits the wicked. Once you die, that’s it; you face God. And to face God in your sins is dreadful. The devil uses that fear of death like a weapon. Much like terrorists use the fear of death, the devil uses fear of death to control people.

But here’s what Jesus’ death achieved. It took care of our sin problem already. It brought us to God. For the Christian, there’s nothing to fear on the other side of death. Even more, Jesus passed through death. He stands victorious on the other side. If death has no power over Jesus, it has no ultimate power over those he represents. So, sure, the devil can threaten us with death, but for the Christian it’s like a gun with an empty clip. The devil can pull the trigger, but it has no power.

God also became man to become our merciful and faithful High Priest. Verses 16-18, “For surely it isn’t angels that he helps…” Remember, he became lower than the angels. It isn’t angels that he helps. He became man to help us, to help the offspring of Abraham—that’s God’s true people. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus couldn’t be our Priest if he was a mere spirit, or an angel, or even just the divine Son. Priests were chosen from among men and on behalf of men. To become our High Priest, the Son had to become one with us in humanity. That allowed him to become our propitiation and our help. In his death he removes our punishment (propitiation); in his life he becomes our help. He knows what temptation feels like. He knows the full force of the trials and the darkness. And he was able to overcome it all without sin. That qualifies Jesus and Jesus alone to be our greatest help in our weariness.

That’s why God became man. According to Hebrews 2, God sent his Son into this weary world to become our greater Adam, to represent us, to suffer for us, to die for us, to deliver us and rise victorious over death for us, and to help us till we inherit the world to come with him. That’s why God crowned Jesus with glory and honor. That’s why God subjected the world to come to Jesus and Jesus alone…

A Few Takeaways for Advent

We love big-God theology. God is infinite in being and perfection. His essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself. He is immortal, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute—all of that is gloriously true! At the same time, it’s possible that, in our defense of one truth, we diminish another equally important truth. God the Son, this same Lord of all, came down to us. For a little while, he was made lower than the angels. He humbled himself and became one of us. It’s crucial that we not neglect Jesus’ true humanity.

Jesus is one person with two natures—truly God and truly man. To lose this is to compromise the gospel, to compromise our understanding of Jesus’ person and work. Even throughout church history, some have suggested that Christ only appeared human; or that Christ suffered only what seemed to be death; or that Christ’s humanity was absorbed into the divine; or that Christ couldn’t have been fully human lest he experience weakness and emotional pain. A number of these teachings have grown from noble attempts to protect Jesus’ deity; but in doing so they’ve diminished his humanity.

We must be careful not to commit the same errors. He became truly man—body and soul. God the Son really assumed a human nature like ours, flesh and blood. “For a little while, he was made lower than the angels.” He “had to be made like his brothers in every respect.” Treasure this about God’s Son.

Also, let Hebrews 2 help you consider a greater pattern of teaching in the New Testament. The New Testament can’t hardly consider Jesus’ first coming without also considering why he came. He was made lower than angels so that he might taste death. He partook of flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the devil. He was made like us in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. Or think of Matthew’s birth narrative as well: “[The virgin Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus [Why?] for he will save his people from their sins.” Galatians 4:4, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [Why?] to redeem those under the law.”

The consistent pattern is that Christ’s incarnation is welded to the greater purpose of Christ’s redemption. Jesus was born to die, and, through death, restore dominion. We might say, Christmas is nothing without the cross. The incarnation was moving toward the cross—that was the point all along.

The incarnation also shows that our God isn’t aloof. Our God doesn’t sit back and just watch. He doesn’t just stare while the world drowns in sin and sorrow. Our God stoops and comes to us. The incarnation proves that our God gets involved. In humility, he enters the weariness himself. It wasn’t something he had to do; it’s something he chose to do for our sake. He steps in. The church father Athanasius once put it this way in his book, On the Incarnation (written around year AD 330):

[God the Son] saw the reasonable race, the race of men that, like Himself, expressed the Father’s Mind, wasting out of existence, and death reigning over all in corruption. He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the Transgression…He saw how unseemly it was that the very things of which He Himself was the [Craftsmen] should be disappearing. He saw how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them; He saw also their universal liability to death. All this He saw and…moved with compassion for our limitation…He took to Himself a body, a human body even as our own.

Brothers and sisters, Christ entered the weariness of this world. Think of the weary world that Jesus chose to enter. Most manger scenes are way too sentimental. They don’t capture the darkness he entered. Joseph and Mary had to flee to Egypt at night because Herod was searching for their baby. Herod sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem two years old and younger. Revelation 12 depicts a great red Dragon seeking to devour Jesus. Jesus entered that world full of exile and weeping and a ferocious Dragon threatening us. He entered the same weary world that we know.

The fashion designer Gianni Versace was once interviewed. They asked if he believed in God. “Yes,” he responded, “I believe in God, but I’m not the kind of religious person who goes to church, who believes in the fairy tale of Jesus born in the stable with the donkey. That, no—I’m not stupid. I can’t believe that God, with all the power that he has, had to have himself born in a stable…it wouldn’t have been comfortable.”

Of course entering our world wasn’t comfortable. But that’s what should impress us most. Our God—powerful as he is, majestic as he is—chose to get involved. He steps in at great cost to himself. Are you someone who gets involved at great cost to yourself? Are you willing to forgo the comforts of this world to enter the weariness of others? That’s how our Savior loved us. Our darkness and depravity didn’t stop Jesus from coming to us. He stoops down, knowing what it’ll cost him to bring us to glory. He didn’t have to, but he chose to. The Son of God chose to become a man to die for our sins. That’s why he became man, that he might taste death for everyone.

Something else: Jesus knows suffering better than any of us. He was born in a stable and grew up with no place to lay his head. He experienced hunger, fatigue, and weariness. He felt the devil’s lies. People lied behind his back. His own family misunderstood him. He felt the misery of death when his friend died. He experienced pain in the Garden at Gethsemane. He prayed with loud cries and tears. He experienced abandonment. He endured abuse. He was shamed, hated, mocked, and beaten. He felt the dark night of the soul when God seemed absent. He knows what it’s like to not want suffering but still choose obedience. He bore up beneath the mounting weight of this world’s weariness, and he did it all without sin.

That means he can help you in your weariness. He knows exactly what you need and can give you the strength you need. You need not grow weary and lose heart. He will get you all the help necessary to get you to glory. He’s already there. He went before you. He’s already ruling the world to come. God’s answer to your weariness is Jesus. We don’t yet see everything in subjection to man, but we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor; and he is our help moment by moment.

Your weariness will not be the final word. The world won’t always be this way. The baby in the manger governs this world’s destiny. As the new and better Adam, Jesus rules the world to come. “At present we don’t yet see everything in subjection to man.” All of us feel that tension. But here’s God’s answer: “But we do see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.” His reign makes the new world a reality even if we can’t yet see it fully.

The world to come is certain. The King already has dominion over it; and it will come to pass. Revelation 21:3-4 describes that world to come like this: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”