The New Man - 4

I invite you to open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2.

Tonight we will, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, see how that Jesus is the new man. I'm reading a book now that is very enriching. It's a book written by a Puritan named Thomas Goodwin, and the title of the book is The Object and Acts of Justifying Faith. It answers a question that is a very important question, and that is, what must a person believe in order to be justified?

So what are the essential doctrines? I think I'm about 100 pages into it, but I was reading some of it this afternoon, and he kept belaboring a point that I thought that he had already made clear. And I thought to myself, he's arguing against someone. Someone has propounded a position with which he disagrees.

He's not identified that position very clearly, but he's got that in mind. That's what's got him all stirred up to keep emphasizing this so thoroughly and, from my perspective, so unnecessarily. There are often in confessions of faith, there are in the background of the positive assertions, a heresy that they're contradicting. And sometimes you're not aware of what they're contradicting unless you've spent a little time studying church history.

I'll give you a very simple example. This is not from the confession, but from the Baptist catechism. Early in the Baptist catechism, the question is asked, may all men make use of the Holy Scriptures. And for those of us who grew up being urged to read the Bible, we're almost tempted to say, what kind of a stupid question is that?

May all men make use of the Holy Scriptures. But when you remember that in the 1600s, when that catechism was written, the Roman Catholics were telling their people, don't read the Bible. It's dangerous for you to read the Bible. Only priests should read the Bible. If you read the Bible, you're going to make wrong interpretations.

But if you don't know the controversy, if it doesn't occur to you that the Roman Catholics had been forbidding their people to read the Bible, then that question makes almost no sense. There are portions in the Bible where it's almost like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. I think that this is one of those passages of Scripture that you may have spent your entire life reading the book of Hebrews. If you read through the Bible once a year, then you read the book of Hebrews once a year and never really paid any attention to the fact that the first two chapters are a comparison contrast with Christ's superiority over angels.

And what's going on there? So here we have one side of the conversation on how Jesus is superior to the angels. But if you don't know a little bit of the other side of the conversation that is not reviewed in these two chapters, then it may seem a little puzzling.

So I think that it's very beneficial for us to know some of the background that leads to what we're going to be studying tonight. And I think that there are three primary misunderstandings that are corrected in these few verses that we will be looking at tonight. One misunderstanding, I think this misunderstanding is most clearly revealed in John chapter 12 and verse 34. So take a look at John chapter 12 and verse 34 we'll see this first misunderstanding that gives rise quite naturally to a second misunderstanding. But in John chapter 12 and verse, well let's start with verse 30 so you'll get the idea. So the Lord has spoken to Jesus from heaven and in verse 30 Jesus answered and said, this voice did not come because of me but for your sake.

Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out and I, if I am lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples to myself. This he said signifying by what death he would die. And since we are Bible readers then we know that Jesus being lifted up is a phrase that refers to his dying, being lifted up on the cross.

But the people who were there also understood that he was talking about dying. So look what they say in verse 34. The people answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? So you have just, we know that you have been calling yourself the Son of Man.

We know that this is a messianic title. So when you call yourself the Son of Man you are claiming to be the Messiah and you have just said something that proves that you don't understand the Bible. It says in the Bible that the Son of Man will remain forever and you have just said that you the Son of Man are going to be lifted up. So you could not possibly be the Son of Man if indeed you're going to die because the Son of Man will remain forever.

So that's the first misunderstanding. They say we have heard from the law and I can see how that they would arrive at this misunderstanding from the law because some of the promises that are made to David are you'll have a son and you'll never fail to have a son who is sitting on the throne and his throne will last forever and ever. There are those kind of verses in the Old Testament so I think that it's a fairly easy misunderstanding to make that the Messiah is someone who is going to be a deathless person. Now you know the word person can be used to refer to intelligent beings other than humans. So for example God exists in three persons. So person is a word that doesn't refer exclusively to humans and so the fact that they thought that the Messiah was going to be a person who could never die also led them to conclude that consequently he must not be a human.

The Messiah, because humans die, all humans die with the exception of Enoch and Elijah, all humans die and so if the Messiah is going to be a deathless person then he must be a non-human person. We have a tendency to think of the universe of intelligent beings consisting of only three categories of persons. There are human persons, there are angels who are persons and then there's God who is a person and he exists in three persons. But that middle category of angels is considerably more complicated than the way that we usually just lump all of these beings into the category of angels. So you will have noticed in your Bibles that there are angelic orders that are referred to as principalities and powers and there are at least seraphim and cherubim. There's archangels and so if you think about it there's quite a bit of room for variety in this category that is called angels.

I think that the word angels is sometimes used for the old test or the word of the Old Testament uses of Elohim. Now you know that Elohim is a word that is sometimes used of God but the word Elohim is also used of other spiritual persons who are not the most high God. So there is only one true and living God who created all things. He is the most high Elohim but he is an Elohim. He is a spiritual person who lives in a realm of reality that we cannot see with our eyes and there are other Elohim.

He is the greatest. He is the creator of all the other Elohim. He is the most high God but there are others and I gather that the Jewish people since they thought that the Messiah was going to be a deathless person was going to be one of these angels or one of these Elohim and so I think that's one of the main reasons why these first two chapters are taken up with saying you're wrong that the Messiah cannot die and consequently you're wrong that the Messiah could not be a man.

He had to be a man so that he could die and he is the Messiah not in spite of the fact that he was a human capable of suffering and dying but he is the Messiah because of what he was able to do as a human who was capable of suffering and dying. So those are two misunderstandings that are behind what we're getting ready to undertake here. The third misunderstanding is one that is very prevalent today so those first two you may have never even heard of that but I promise you you've heard of this third one and that is that God is going to deal with every human being strictly on an individual basis. Now there's a certain sense in which that is true. A person who is born again is not born again because he's part of a certain family or because he's part of a certain people group.

As many as received him to them gave he the right to become children of God, children who were born not of natural descent nor of human decision nor of a husband's will not because of their bloodline or anything like that but they're born of God and so every person must eat the bread of life for himself. That's true. Here's the misunderstanding that God saves you only because of what you do. Here's the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that God deals with everyone in the human race through one of two representative men.

So that's the misunderstanding and that's a very prevalent misunderstanding. It contributes to what we're going to read here. Christianity is the only religion in the world by which we are saved because of what someone else has done. Now that sets Christianity apart from every other religion.

It also sets Christianity apart from various denominations and persons within Christianity who really believe that they're going to get to go to heaven because of what they themselves have done. There are a lot of Baptists who believe that but the fact of the matter is God has dealt with the human race and continues to deal with the human race on the basis of the representation of two representative men and the first one was Adam. In order to be represented by Adam all that was necessary was for you to be born in the ordinary way and there's only been one person in the history of the world who was not born in the ordinary way and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. So everybody else has a human daddy. Everybody else then is represented by the first Adam and bears the consequences of his sin and then there are some people who are born again and are born into the kingdom of God and are represented by the new man, represented by the last Adam, Jesus is called, the last Adam.

He is the new man. He represents us and so those are three misunderstandings that lead to the clarification that is here. Now because the Jews were expecting the Messiah to be someone other than a mere man, other than completely human person capable of suffering and dying, that was one of the reasons why they just automatically discredited Jesus to be the Messiah. So this is why the preaching of Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews. It's foolishness to the Greeks but it's a stumbling block to the Jews. They stumble over the stumbling stone because they had their minds made up that the Messiah could not be this kind of a person who would die. I think that that misunderstanding is behind Peter's rebuke of Jesus after Jesus begins to tell his disciples that he's going to die and Peter says, far be it from you Lord.

You don't understand. If you are the Messiah, you're not going to die and Jesus says, get behind me Satan. You have believed a lie.

You're confused about this. So in this passage of scripture, the Holy Spirit begins to teach us that the fact that the Messiah would be a real human who was capable of suffering and dying is something that was in fact predicted long ago. And so the first point in this sermon is we're going to see an ancient prophecy. And then secondly, there is an obvious problem that the Holy Spirit points out.

And then finally, there is the revelation of a representative person or a new man. So let's first of all look at this ancient prophecy that tells us that God is not somehow implementing plan B and trying to do the best he can with unforeseen circumstances but rather the death of Christ was something that had been planned long ago along with the exaltation of Christ. So in verse five, Hebrews chapter two in verse five, it says, for he has not put the world to come. Now on Sunday, I told you that the world to come was a figure of speech that refers to the age of the Messiah. And so the world to come is not, I mean, we would have a tendency to think that's heaven. That's when Jesus comes back and establishes his kingdom on earth. But the world to come is the world that is subsequent to the appearance and work of the Messiah.

And so we are living in the world to come in this sense. So he has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels. You think that it has to be a deathless person, the large category of angels, but he has not. That's not what he has put the age of the Messiah under the jurisdiction of angels in the subjection to angels.

Here's what the ancient prophecy says in verse six, but one testified in a certain place saying, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set over him the works of your hands.

You have put all things in subjection under his feet. Now there are in fact two outstanding prophecies that are made here concerning the Messiah. And the first one is that he is going to be made a little lower than the angels. So this is taken from Psalm eight and Psalm eight begins with the Psalmist contemplating the glory of God as revealed in the heavens. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth who had set thy glory above the heavens.

When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? And so surely you have felt that way as you have gazed up at the stars and at the beauty of the moon and you just thought, I'm just so small, I'm so insignificant. Well, you are small, but you're not insignificant. And so we've got to be careful that literally you're not insignificant.

You are important. And at the end of this evening, you should have a greater sense of just how you figure into God's cosmic plan, perhaps more clearly than you've thought of that before. The fact of the matter is, I don't want to keep you in suspense, God has planned that apparently human beings are going to be second only to him eventually in the universe. So with all the powerful spiritual beings that there are, apparently God has planned that humans are going to be above them all. And not angels, but humans. And the passage teaches us that that state of affairs has already commenced with Jesus Christ and his exaltation. So to look at Jesus Christ in his humanity, and especially if we look at Jesus Christ in his agony, we would look at that and say, that's a very small thing.

That's a very shameful thing. Surely God is not going to use that. And then he dies. And so when the ancient prophecy here says you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, you've made him a little lower than the angels, there is a temporal quality to this. It's not just positional that you have put him in a position that's a little lower than the angels, but there's also a temporal quality that you could translate it this way.

You have put him for a little while under the angels. So in what way have humans for a little while been put under the angels? So we were created in the image of God, placed on the earth as God's image bearers. And we still bear God's image in a, trying to think of the right word, constitutional sense. So we are constituted of understanding. We're capable of perceiving truth. We are constituted of affections that we are capable of loving and hating things. We are constituted of a will. We are able to make decisions based on what we think to be best or what we desire to happen. So constitutionally we are still in the image of God, but morally, morally when sin entered the world, then the image of God morally was shattered in us so that our understanding, yeah, we still possessed an understanding, but our understanding was darkened.

Yes, we still possessed affections, but our affections were perverted. Yes, we still possess a will, but our will is bound by our corrupt nature. And so the Bible says that even lost people are in the image of God, but they're in the image of God constitutionally. They still are a noble creation of God. It is this constitutional image of God that makes all human life worth protecting and makes it all valuable. So even when conception occurs, right then there is a little person who is in the image of God and ought to be respected and not to be protected. But that little person in the image of God is morally corrupt. I was reading some time ago, just a few days ago, really in Psalm 51 where David says, in sin did my mother conceive me. And I thought that's a great argument for protecting the unborn because it's only persons who are capable of sin. And the moment that he was conceived, he was a sinner. You see, it's not a very good compliment, but it still proves the point that the moment that a person is conceived, he is a person because he's a sinner. I texted that to one of my friends who's very active in the abolitionist movement and I don't think he appreciated the way that he ought to have.

But anyway, maybe you will. You're far more refined than he was. And so a human being created in the image of God is still, even though a sinner, still constitutionally in the image of God, but morally not in the image of God until we are recreated. So we look at the heavens, we look at the stars and we think, I just, I'm so small. How does God even know that I exist? I mean, look at all these planets and we're just one little solar system out of apparently billions of solar systems. And then I'm just one little person living.

How does God even know that I exist? What is man that you're mindful of him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. And I think that being a little while lower than the angels means that man became mortal. That is, man became capable of death. All the angels, all the Elohim are deathless beings.

They don't die, but humans die. And so for a little while we have been made lower than the angels. And then this passage of scripture is applied not only to humans in general, but to Jesus in particular. That Jesus was made for a little while, little while lower than the angels. And I think that means he became subject to death. He became a mortal. Previous to his becoming a mortal, he was immortal. The second person of the Trinity cannot die.

And so he became for a little while a little lower than the angels. Tomorrow night, God willing, we'll see why all this was necessary, why it was fitting that God for whom and through whom everything exists should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. But tonight we're just seeing that Jesus for a little while was made subject to death. That's one of the prophecies that is in this ancient prophecy. And then immediately without any kind of transition, there's a second prophecy that is made.

Look what it says. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. Now we have a tendency to think of this only in terms of the fact that God has entrusted humans with the responsibility of subduing the earth. It's what he told Adam and Eve to do, go forth and subdue the earth and multiply it. And so we have a tendency to think of it only in terms of that. But the Holy Spirit here applies it much more particularly and categorically. It's not just a general kind of, hey, I've got dominion over the earth so I can farm. I can kill animals and eat animals. I have that right given to me.

It's far more than that. The Holy Spirit says, well, obviously everything has not been put under your feet yet. Everything has not been put under the feet of man yet because you cannot command storms to go out to the ocean. So storms are not under your feet. You cannot command a cancer to leave the body of your loved one. So cancer is not under your feet.

You can't even cure yourself of a cold. And so there are many things that are not under your feet. And this is in fact the second point of the sermon and that's all there is to it. So there is an ancient prophecy that this very small man is going to be made for a little while lower than the angels, but he is going to be exalted to a position. Humans are going to be exalted to a position where everything is going to be in subjection to us, crowned with glory and honor.

But here's the obvious problem. If we're in the age of the Messiah, then why aren't the followers of the Messiah, you and I, why aren't we endued with this kind of power? Well, the Holy Spirit then says, well, just be patient.

The process has commenced. It has commenced in the exaltation of Jesus. So halfway through verse eight, it says, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.

But here's the problem. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. And the him here is referring to those humans, us, those humans who are destined to reign and eventually have all things put under our feet. The reign of Messiah has commenced, but all things have not yet been put under the people of the Messiah. But verse nine says, but we see Jesus.

The process has commenced in Jesus. We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. So he, if he's wearing a crown, he is reigning and he is reigning with glory. Glory is the revelation of excellence. Even if nobody ever sees it, a person can be glorious, but that's not the case with Jesus. He is also honored.

That is the recognition of excellence. So Jesus has been revealed to be a most excellent character and it has been recognized by the person who has the authority to exalt him and crown him, which obviously is God. And then notice that Jesus is crowned with glory and honor for the suffering of death. So not in spite of the fact that he suffered and died, but because he suffered and died, which is one of the main points of this passage is that you Jewish people who think that the Messiah could not possibly die and you're stumbling over the preaching of Christ crucified. No, it's an ancient prophecy said that he would be made for a little while lower than the angels and then that he would be exalted and he would be crowned with glory and honor because of what he had done.

And that has happened to Jesus. And so the exaltation of humans to a place in the universe apparently second only to God himself has commenced in the exaltation of Jesus. And so we shall reign with him and the Bible contains such promises as the one who overcomes, I will grant him to sit down with me on my throne, even as I sat down with my father on his throne. The one who conquers, I will give him authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron, even as I myself received authority from my father.

You have a noble, you have a noble future ahead of you, a very important future ahead of you. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you're going to be exalted along with your head, along with the new man. Now the first man, when he transgressed, the covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression. So by one man, sin entered the world and death through sin. That's what happened through the first man. But now, so death comes upon everyone through the disobedience of the first man. But look what happens through the obedience of the new man. At the end of verse nine, it says that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. The first man released a flood of death upon the everyone descending from him by ordinary generation. The second Adam takes all that, that flood of death and puts it in a cup and drinks it. He tastes death for everyone.

I'm going to come back to tasting death. Let's look at for a moment at what it means, every one. So does that mean every human being who has ever lived?

If that's going to be your conclusion, you need to prove it from the context. Let's look at who is specified as the beneficiary. Who is the everyone? Everyone who?

Every who, we might ask. Look at the next verse in verse 10. It was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory. So he tastes the death for the sons that he brings to glory. To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified. That's the group for whom he tastes the death, those who are being sanctified. And then later on in verse 13, here am I in the children whom God has given me. So you can't prove universal atonement from this verse of scripture, although it is one of the favorite verses of those who try to prove a universal atonement.

But if you look at the context, I think it instead says the everyone is specified here as being those who are, we would say, who have been born again and who follow after Jesus. But now let's go back to that metaphor that he tasted death. He tastes the death for everyone. And I suppose that there are other ways that you could taste something, but I'm reminded of what Jesus said in the garden of Gethsemane when Peter had pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus.

He said to him, put away your sword. Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given to me? And so on the basis of that statement, I think of the wrath of God against all of his elect people as being condensed down into a cup, a cup that Jesus drank. Now I'm sure that all of us have some dread of death. I can just imagine that, let's just symbolize our dread of death as being a cup that is sitting up there on a cupboard at the end of our life.

And as we get closer and closer, we see that cup drawing nearer and we have some sense of dread of taking that cup and drinking it. But on the basis of what we read here, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone, I think that there is for every child of God a moment of surprise when that cup touches his lips. It's not bitter. It's not full of the wrath of God. It's sweet. It's sweet. And as we drink down what the Lord has for us in that cup, we understand our desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.

I don't know which I should choose. It's better to depart and be with Christ. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And as we pick up that cup that was once so full of the fiery smoking wrath of God, we find that that cup has been drained completely by our Savior who tasted death for every one of us. Amen.